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↳ 019, ordinary people

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𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇. She reached up and dried her tears with her hands. She didn't feel much different but there was an obvious absence of remorse as she glanced at Naya.

Naya looked pathetic with the small smile on her face and for a moment, it made Colette want to smile but what would be the point in that? What would the point be in anything? All she could do was look into her devil's face and wonder what god created her and why bring her to Colette? Why bring her here if all she was going to do was hurt people?

Colette still felt anger, it was deeply rooted within her but there was no building ache spreading through her anymore. Naya's brows furrowed and her lips parted like she was going to speak but Colette stopped her.

She jutted her hand out, clasping it tightly around Naya's neck as she got to her knees and then her feet, dragging Naya up with her. She felt the release spill from her palm, shooting through her arm like a phantom pain before her hand was ablaze and Naya was screaming.

"Don't you ever think you can help me," snarled Colette as she sent Naya to the ground as the skin around her neck bubbled and turned black. She released her grip as Naya sobbed, rolling onto her side with an awful shriek. "You can't help me," Colette whispered to her, "and don't ever assume you're anything to me. You're nothing."

Naya opened her mouth to speak but she coughed and Colette was pleased to see blood spill out across her palm. She bent down and grabbed her phone from the grass, turning it off and slipping it into her pocket as she walked away to leave Naya to her painful healing.

She stalked through the cemetery and back to her car, getting inside and driving away in the matter of seconds. She had no use being there anymore, not when her parents visited and left, ripped away from her yet again too soon. She gripped the steering wheel tightly in her hands, pressing down on the gas to get back to where she wanted to be.

The Salvatore house was lit up inside when she arrived. She parked in the front and slammed the door shut. She was still angry, which was strange. Shouldn't she be on Stefan's ripper level? Shouldn't she want to go off and do anything she wanted, not give a fuck about anything or anyone?

She wasn't sad, her agony had been subdued to a normal sadness. To just a baby pain that lingered in the back of her mind like a disease waiting to take hold. She imagined all of it going away but a part of her wanted that reminder, she couldn't let it all go.

Colette didn't walk up to the door, she stayed by her car and watched the house. She could sense that there were more than one person in the house, one not being Stefan. She knew there were two humans inside along with Damon and it was easy to deduce that it was Alaric and Elena. She wondered for a moment what they were doing but those thoughts slid away as new ones formed.

Damon didn't come to her rescue. She called and called and yet, no response. She did think for a moment what if she had called Rebekah or even Klaus? Would they have come running when she sobbed and pleaded?

Rebekah, maybe. Their friendship was still new but there was a connection there. Something deeply rooted.

Colette knew Klaus would've come, not for her personally but to protect the power running through her veins. Her golden red inchor was more precious to him than her heart. She should've known there was something more about her to keep him wanting more, to keep him calling her.

She was nothing more than a toy. An object for victory. A source of power.

She turned away from the house and rounded the car, getting back inside and starting it up. She drove away, not knowing exactly where she would be going but she wasn't going inside. There was no point in facing Damon right now, not when she didn't care what they were doing.

There weren't many people out and she wondered just for a moment what went down during the Night of Illumination, surely she wasn't the only one who got a visit from some ghosts. She saw police lights flashing in the distance and she turned down a different road to avoid the chaos up ahead. She didn't need Liz Forbes pulling her over.

Colette drove down the familiar road until she turned into the neighborhood she was looking for. She was tired and her clothes smelled bad and she wanted something better to wear so when she rolled to a stop outside the vacant home, she grinned to herself.

When she parked and walked up to the front door, she didn't bother trying to pick the lock. She lifted her leg and kicked the door open, it swung backwards and cracked against the wall. The electric company had shut off the electricity so the home was cold for it still being summer. It was still pretty, the furniture all open and waiting for her to sit down and spread her own vile scent. She wanted them all to know she had been here.

The Pérez family home was waiting for Naya's return. Colette entered the home and didn't bother going to the kitchen, she knew there would be nothing there for her to eat. She walked up the staircase, running her hand over the smooth railing and thought of how many times she had raced down these marble steps, laughter caught in her throat and Naya just a few paces in front. But as she walked up to the second floor, she could only think of Naya's mother's broken body and the fresh smell of a kill wafting in from the kitchen.

Naya had been a killer before death and she would continue to be one after.

Colette always loved Naya's bedroom but seeing it now with what she knew, it changed things. The light pink walls looked dark and lifeless without the chandelier light. The fluffy snow white carpet looked gray, like some unopened cloud ready to pour. Everything was a mask used to conceal the truth behind the princess colors and the rich smells and jewelry. It wasn't real, there wasn't a speck of genuine nature hiding in these walls.

She went to the closet and began to go through the clothes, pulling out what she liked the most. She then made a pile of what she knew Naya loved and she did the same with the clothes in the drawers. She collected her own goodie bag of fashionable numbers and then carried Naya's pile to the first floor living room.

Tossing the clothes into the grand fireplace, Colette bent down and inhaled deeply. The faintest traces of ash where the family must've lit it once in their time living here. Colette could smell other things, like the fatty muscles of humans and the stench old bones gave off, musty and ancient and dirty. She held her hand out in front of her and flicked her fingers with the intent to burn and they lit up.

She knew she wasn't actually a witch, knowing it couldn't technically be possible thanks to the laws of nature. Her power came from protection, from revival. Whatever nasty magic that had latched onto her soul when she was brought back, it stuck around like a poison in her blood. It brought her some relief knowing her parents were still her parents and she wasn't technically part of some big conspiracy like Tommy kept implying with Naya's visions and the possible catastrophes in their future.

She brought her hand down onto the clothes in the fireplace and watched them burn from her spot on the ground. She waited until they were fully consumed before getting up and grabbing her bag of beautiful clothes that she couldn't wait to wear. She thought about staying in the house a little longer, maybe even sleeping in Naya's bed just for good measure but she honestly didn't care that much.

She didn't feel like she cared much about anything. If she had her humanity, she would never have come to Naya's home and done this sort of retaliation, even if she were tempted to. There was something about coming into someone's home and ruining something of theirs that didn't feel right before but now it was exactly what she needed. She needed to destroy and burn and ruin but that would have to wait. Homecoming was this Friday and she didn't want to waste all her time going after someone who clearly only got joy out of seeing her.

Colette compelled a hotel worker to let her spend the night in one of their rooms and to bring her a nice bottle of wine. She didn't want to go back to the Salvatore house so she found herself in luxury instead. She'd go back after school but for now she wanted to sleep where no one would bother her or ask questions.

She also wanted them to worry. Damon especially.

It was strange to still care but also not at all. She didn't flip her switch all the way off, she meant to just flip it halfway for Naya and then she came to realize it felt good. The pain was dimmed but still even so present, just enough to keep her motivated and to keep her right. There was no need to go crazy, to go fully unleashed, at least not yet.

She dressed for school in the morning. Slipping into a pair of Naya's good jeans which she surprised herself by actually fitting into. She'd gotten fit lately with all the running and fighting and stress. God, the stress hit her bad. She realized as much when her stomach hurt and ached. She was hungry and she hadn't eaten in days.

Hunger didn't matter when hatred did.

There was something about wearing only a little spaghetti strapped tank top to school and no bra that drove her wild. It was a little pink thing, definitely not appropriate but she didn't care. She swung her bag over her shoulder and left the hotel but not before pulling aside her compelled worker and pulling them into the bathroom in the lobby.

She sunk her needy fangs into the girl's neck and sucked and drank until she knew it would be dangerous to do so anymore. She didn't want a dead body lying around with puncture wounds in their neck. When she pulled away, wiping her lips and sucking the blood off her fingers, she looked into the girl's eyes and compelled her to cover it up, that she merely got bitten by some ravage mosquitoes. It was simpler to lie that way instead of saying she burned herself with her curling iron because what curler would form two perfect holes against someone's neck?

With a full stomach and energy coursing through her, Colette drove to school. She had never noticed how many pathetic people were in this town than she did as she drove through town to get to the high school. People walking from the coffee shop or on their way to work without an actual thought coursing through their heads about what was going on behind closed doors. Did they grow suspicious of the strange deaths here in Mystic Falls? Or did they look the other way like they were trained to?

They were all just toys to be played with. Nothing more than tools.

She pulled into the parking lot and stayed in her car until she found it best to go in. She'd swiped a pack of cigarettes off of the girl she'd drank from and she lit one as she watched people linger on the front lawn. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the wine she'd gotten from the hotel free of charge, of course, and she unscrewed the top and drank. It was a nice red, rich in flavor but cheap. She was thankful it had a reusable cap but she knew from that it was a cheap bottle and nothing more than a means to get drunk.

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she balanced the bottle in her lap and grabbed her water bottle. She filled it with the wine and tossed the bottle into her backseat to dispose of later. Flicking ash off her cigarette out her window, she placed it between her lips and rolled her window up before turning her car off.

Colette slung her backpack over her shoulders and took a long drag of the cigarette as she slammed her door shut. The smoke burned but it didn't bother her. She'd inhaled worse. It gave her a mild feeling in her head like she was airy but it never did last long thanks to her vampire healing and metabolism. Nothing ever did last.

She started her walk towards the school when she saw her on the lawn. She was wearing an old pair of jeans she must've kept with Tommy wherever they were hiding out because it certainly wasn't her home. She wore a random shirt underneath a leather jacket she recognized to be her brother's and it made her hate her even more. Colette was glad the hatred was an emotion that stayed and flared, she lived and breathed it.

She pulled the cigarette from her lips and flicked more ash off as she approached the girl. She had a scarf around her throat and that was the only slight to make her grin.

"Looking very...Jennifer's Body today, Cole," said Naya with her arms crossed. "Should've known you were the one to raid my closet and nearly burn my house down."

Colette pressed the butt of the cigarette to her lips and inhaled, clutching her water bottle in her other hand. When she pulled the cigarette away and grinned and she blew the smoke out into Naya's face and murmured, "Someone had to wear what you weren't."

"And the fire?"

"What about it?" She tossed the cig to the ground and stomped on it. Just for a small second, she felt a spark of something in her chest like remorse. She would never litter but she forced those emotions down and forced the switch down in her head just a little further. She didn't need that type of emotion following her into school.

Naya scowled, falling into step with Colette as they walked towards the front doors. "You could've burned my house down!"

"It's such a shame it didn't," she cooed, rolling her eyes.

"God," snapped Naya, "are you even wearing a bra? I can see your fucking nipples."

"And is that a problem?" asked Colette, not bothering to glance at her as she pushed the door open. The hall was crowded but there was something about the looks she was getting that made her blood burn with pleasure. She liked being seen. She liked being noticed and wanted and cared for. She liked the drama she was causing.

"It is when you're walking around like a slut."

Colette grinned. "So glad you're back Naya, I was just beginning to forget how fucking rude you were when someone does something you don't like. Want me to change in the bathroom? Wear nothing entirely?"

Nays scowled and this time Colette saw the expression. "Let's just get to history."

"Aw, am I ruining your morning? I can dial it down, after all, you did teach me how to turn it off." Colette caught the way Naya's hand by her side tightened into a fist and then flexed out as if trying to stop herself from lashing out. "I can be the goody two-shoes Colette you thought I'd become by turning it off. I can be the mindless slave you assumed I would revert into."

She followed the other girl with a sense of horrifying glee. Students in the hall glanced at them and even said how happy they were that Naya was back and Colette stood by her side like the loyal dog she wanted her to be but they both knew what she was really doing.

By second period, Naya was more pissed and Colette was giddy. She was slightly tipsy thanks to the secret within her water bottle and the fact that she was feeding off Naya's annoyance like a goddamn buffet. Besides Naya, Colette was having a hard time focusing when Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie were staring at her at every passing second. It seemed Damon went and talked about her little late night decision.

It seemed nothing was sacred anymore.

As Colette walked towards the parking lot at the end of the day, someone rushed up to her side. They took her arm, looping hers with theirs and she knew who it was before they even spoke.

"Did you know Damon was trying to distract me during the bonfire?" asked Rebekah, her accent tickling something within Colette's chest.

"Yes."

That clearly wasn't what Rebekah was hoping she would say. "And were you–?"

"Yes," Colette said for a second time as she stopped in front of her car to look at the girl. She was wearing a little athletic skirt with a matching jacket. It seemed she really was taking the whole high school cheerleader thing seriously.

"Okay but you totally ditched me, and you know you're more fun than Damon," she said with a frown. "I would've happily been distracted by you."

"Sorry about that," muttered Colette, "I was busy getting stabbed...in the eye."

Rebekah put a hand on her hip with a small smile. "Made someone that angry?"

Colette smiled back, her eyelids heavy. "I did more than make them angry." She leaned forward, whispering, "I made myself a prize to be won."

Rebekah grabbed her wrist and pushed her up against the hood of her car, narrowing her eyes. "Something isn't right," she said, leaning forward and sniffing the air by Colette's mouth. "Are you drunk?"

Colette pulled her wrist from her hand but didn't move any further away. "Hardly." She gave her a lazy smile, letting her eyes run up Rebekah's neck and the way she had just a strand by her face braided with those damn pink feathers. "If I didn't know you were after Stefan, I would think you liked having me pressed up against you."

Rebekah didn't shy away from Colette's statement and rather she smiled. "Too bad you're my brother's because then we'd truly have some fun."

Colette's smile fell into a smooth frown and she glared. "I belong to no one."

Rebekah chuckled. "Tell that to my brother and to Damon."

Colette pushed her hands against Rebekah's shoulders and knocked her back at step. "I don't belong to Damon and I certainly don't belong to Klaus. I am no one's property."

The girl eyed her with curiosity. "Will you drive me home after practice?"

"No," Colette spat, grabbing her keys from her backpack as she whirled around the car to the front seat.

"Come on, Cole," she cooed, "I know you want to."

Colette yanked the car door open and glared with a hateful tone on her tongue. "I'm not your personal chauffeur."

I don't belong to anyone, she repeated to herself as she got behind the wheel and pushed the switch inside her head down just a tad further. I don't belong to anyone. I am not property. I am not a toy.

Colette drove to the Salvatore home, chugging the rest of her mulled wine before throwing it so hard into the other seat it bounced up and nearly cracked the passenger window. Something about being seen as belonging to someone made Colette's mind go fuzzy with rage. That was what she was running from because of Naya and Tommy, she didn't want to run from it with her friends.

When she got to the Salvatore home, she was unpleasantly surprised to find her brother waiting for her, leaning against his car in the driveway. She could see Naya's perfect angry head in the car when Colette got out. Was this a confrontation? A declaration of how she needs to stay away from the bad vampires, how she needed to be the good submissive sister and friend. How she was secretly needed to fuel them with power.

"Hey, sis," said Tommy as she approached. He had his arms crossed, his jean jacket wrapped around his waist and she noticed he was sweating lightly. It was warmer out than she realized.

"Leave," she said, trying to walk past him and towards the house but he reached out, grabbing her arm.

"Naya told me what happened last night," he whispered, glancing back at the car to where Naya was no doubt listening in. "You learned the truth about everything."

Colette pulled her wrist from his grip and snarled at him, feeling her eyes throb and the push of her fangs. She forgot how easily it was to get provoked around him now that she barely had anything to hold onto.

"Cole, please," he said. "We thought that killing you and making you, well, you'd be safe. The visions would stop and whatever the fuck would be over. We found mom and dad's old records, the sealed documents hiding the transactions from your birth. We thought if you were changed, if you died and the protection seal was broken, then the mess inside you would've burned away too."

"Well," she snarled, "you thought wrong." She wanted to light her hands on fire, she wanted to spill water out from her mouth and drown him and burn him and drown him and burn him–

"Klaus and his family, they will kill us all," snapped Tommy, urgency in his voice. From the other side of the car, the door opened and Naya's feet hit the gravel. "They will use your blood for their own gain, they will take your blood and god, Cole, they'll–"

"They'll bring back dear old mommy." Colette glanced at Naya as she came to stand beside her, her arms crossed. "They want their family whole again."

"And I'm supposed to care?" she asked with a scoff. "They can have some blood if it gets them off my ass." She thought of only Klaus when she said that, it was the only one that mattered enough to get rid of.

"You'd give it to them and not us?" breathed Naya, gasping with shock.

Colette surged forward, taking the girl by the throat and slamming her back against the car with enough force that she could've shattered the window if she had hit it just right. "You think you deserve it?" She spat in her face. "You killed my parents, not even death is deserving of you."

She released her neck and Naya fell back onto her feet with a small gasp, rubbing her neck. She had gotten rid of the little scarf she'd been wearing and Colette could see the burns still trying to heal. Scabbing and browning.

"It'd be a shame if you were to get burned again," Colette whispered, stroking a single finger down Naya's cheek as Tommy grabbed her by her other arm. "I'd hate to see your pretty face ruined."

Tommy pulled on her harshly. "Mom and dad were protecting you from yourself, don't you fucking get that? With them out of the way, we could have free rein over you. You could have free rein to do whatever the hell you wanted."

"But you didn't already?" she gasped back, wrenching herself free.

"The magic they had over you was broken when you died but they still had power," explained Tommy as he gave Naya a rushed glance. "The blood magic used to bring you back as a child, there were protection charms infused with the magic. With them alive, no one could take your blood away forcefully. You were completely hidden to the supernatural world–"

"So you killed them to have free rein over me?" she snapped. "You'd rather kill them and then violate me to get just an ounce of power?"

"We wanted to do it earlier," whispered Naya, shaking her head. "But we got into the car accident and, well..."

A smile spread across Colette's lips. "You wanted my blood to bring you back, so you didn't have to turn, huh?"

Naya looked away, crossing her arms as if that would protect her.

"You made me a walking target," said Colette as she looked at Tommy. "With mom and dad alive, I could've been protected but your selfishness doomed us all."

"You were supposed to be ours," whispered Naya and Colette was surprised to find tears in the girl's eyes. "Mine."

Colette pouted. "So sorry your evil plan didn't work out the way you wanted. What a pity to be so disappointed."

Tommy took hold of Colette's shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Klaus can take what he wants from you now and if he gets a hold on that power, you will be drained and kept away as a–a–a fucking blood slave. There's never been someone like you and we really thought that...with mom and dad out of the way, there was a chance the power could transfer to us or–or you'd gift us with it." He was desperate for her to understand. What a fool he was. "Mom and dad, their bloodlines were descended from witches, they had protection charms of their own, slivers of the full power you have. We thought...we thought killing them, we'd get something too but...it was stripped away. Losing that much blood, being on the brink, I guess it wipes you clean. Death stole from them just as it stole from us."

"It was written in the lore that went along with your birth records," explained Naya. "Demon magic, that dark blood you now depend on to live, comes with consequences and rules." The girl ran her eyes over Colette like she was a piece of meat ready to be skewered and served. "If we got even the slightest taste of it, we'd be more powerful than the originals."

You'd never die.

Colette felt her heart beat race, the pulse pushing against her chest like an aching pain. "You know nothing of what is inside of me." She balled her hands into fists and tried to think of something else then the angry fire building up inside her lungs like water, like murky water she'd inhaled and choked on when she died. "My blood is not yours to give or take. My blood, my choice, mine! You think I am going to willingly give it away now that whatever protection mom and dad had over me is gone? You think now that I've flipped the switch, I can give and take and pass it out like fucking Halloween candy?"

Tommy and Naya stared at her and she took a step closer to them, feeling herself begin to ache all over and she saw her parents' faces and she wanted to scream. She wanted to throw her hands down and scream and rage and expel everything inside of her.

"My blood is a gift," she whispered to them. "It heals after death, something of which you will never get the taste of."

It will heal and kill and maim. It will cure.

"The original mother," breathed Tommy in a shaky voice, "she wants her children dead. If she gets resurrected, she will kill them all."

"Good."

"You don't fucking get it!" snapped Naya. "You've always been so quick to jump to conclusions, Colette, you never think it through! If the original mother comes back, she can take your magic. She can take back what she gave away!"

Tommy touched Naya's arm gently.

Yet, isn't that what they wanted of her, too? Did they not also want her powers? Her sweet blood for their own?

"Don't act like you care about what happens to me." Colette glared at the pair and wished she could rip her hands through their chests and stomachs so they could feel, just for a second, what they did to Adam and Stella.

"You'll die, Cole," Naya whispered. "I can't let you die."

Colette narrowed her eyes. "You already did."

"And you're forgetting I died, too!" she cried, clutching her chest as if she were about to drop to her knees and beg. "I died in that wreck just like you did! You're not the only one who suffered!"

"You wanted to die," Colette whispered. "It was your plan all along, not mine."

Naya reached forward, desperate to grip Cole's hands. "I couldn't live without you. If you lived forever, so did I. We're meant to be. Twin flames, remember?"

Colette shook her head. "You only wanted to die so my blood could bring you back. You never wanted this, you selfish bitch."

"I did everything for you!" Naya screamed. "Without this gift I've given you, your powers would never have surfaced, you would've died after living a pathetic life but I've given you an adventure! I've given you something no one could ever dream of–"

Tommy frowned. "But...Ny, we didn't know her powers would come out." He didn't know for sure, it seemed. Had Colette only been an experiment to him? "We...we thought it would save her."

Naya's smile fell and her fingers drummed together as her eyes went to his with a nervous little tick. "I–I know, baby. I'm just getting upset, that's all."

Colette grinned. "No, you're not just upset." She took a step forward and Tommy let her until she had Naya pressed against the car. "You knew I'd have powers and you thought," she laughed, "and you thought you'd get a taste."

Tommy's lips parted, playing the role of shocked brother near perfectly. Colette could smell it though, like she could smell all of it. "Naya–"

"Who fucking cares," Naya snarled in Cole's face, sprouting her fangs. "I gave you a life worth living, you should be thankful."

"Want me on my hands and knees?" said Colette. "Want me to thank you for killing us all because you could never get over your need to have everything?"

Naya reached forward and took Colette by the arms and Cole did nothing to stop her but smile. "The original mother will create something far worse than you and her children. She will use you for it and that's what we should be focusing on, not your pent up anger against me. You really think your little outburst is going to stop you from seeing the truth behind all this? Even as a human, your life would've been on the line. But now?" Naya laughed, squeezing Cole's arms tighter. "Now you can fight back."

"Did you ever think to ask if I wanted to fight back?" asked Colette. "Did you think, maybe, I would've liked to have died right alongside mom and dad?"

Naya's smile faltered. "No, because you and I are tied to each other. We have been since birth, Cole. You would never want to leave this–this earth without me. We died together, we live together."

"Talk some sense into your girlfriend," snarled Colette, jutting her chin at the girl as Tommy reached out to pull Naya away. "Maybe tell her to tone it down with the power hungry talk or the originals will come for her next."

"Colette–" Tommy started but he closed his mouth, looking away.

He would regret going against her. He would regret trusting the witch.

She glanced at them as Tommy began to walk to the passenger seat to get Naya inside. She walked around, fixing the strap on her backpack. "Just so you know, Ny, I didn't turn it all the way off. I would never do that if it meant it'd please you."

Naya hissed at her, exposing her fangs. "You'll turn it off and when you do, you'll finally realize how right I am."

"Doubtful."

Naya struggled in Tommy's grip and just for a second, she tore away from him to race towards Colette but her brother was faster. He took her by the neck and twisted it quickly to the right and Colette heard the snap as the girl dropped to her knees and then to her side. Tommy looked up at her slowly and Colette could see his chest rapidly rising and falling.

When he spoke, there were tears in his voice. "She didn't tell me all of it."

"Would it have really mattered?" she asked, making sure she kept a good distance away from him. She didn't want him to touch her, brother or not, he was her enemy. Maybe he wouldn't have helped in getting her killed but that wouldn't have stopped them from killing Stella and Adam.

Tommy looked away, his jaw clenched. "I guess not, no."

She watched him heft Naya up and over his shoulder, tossing her into the back seat of his car. There were no more words spoken between the two as he got into his car and drove away, leaving Colette standing in the driveway watching him leave and wondering why Damon hadn't come outside for her yet.

She decided against going inside, she wanted to go somewhere to release some tension so she tossed her backpack back into her car and took off towards the woods. When she found a nice place far enough from being heard she opened her mouth and screamed and screamed until her throat burned and her lungs heaved dangerously.

She couldn't go to the Elena squad about anything Naya and Tommy had said. It would make Colette out to be an enemy, someone no longer trustworthy because of all the secrets she was now keeping. If she told them how her blood was powerful and could save someone even after death, she'd be used. She would always be used.

There was too much she didn't know for sure about herself, about her powers and her blood. How much of it had been lies to keep Colette safe? To keep her as a prize? 

She could potentially express to them the nature of her magic and not disclose the secret behind her blood and the fascination Klaus had on her, but it would eat her up. She pictured her switch inside her head and raised it up slightly and away from complete no humanity. She needed to be leveled, she needed to feel just a little more when it came to all this.

The original's mother would come for her if she didn't give up some of her blood. But was she willing to risk the consequences? Yes, potentially.

Her phone buzzed in her back pocket and she cursed. Bringing it out, she noticed a text from Rebekah, a number she didn't know the other girl had.

Get your head out of your ass and help me pick a homecoming dress later at the house xoxo

She rolled her eyes and looked around. Her body still drummed with anger at the betrayals, and she found a potential source to help her with it as she stalked forward towards the lake. She had run further than she thought. It was disgusting but she honestly didn't care as she stripped off her clothes and tossed them into a pile.

Her body still ached and as she stepped into the water, she could've sworn it sizzled. She continued further, stepping over mossy rocks slimy under her feet. She had died by fire and water and as her body screamed, she sunk below the murky water, wetting her hair to its depths. It felt natural being here just as it did when the fire burst from her.

The gods had gifted her something beautiful. Her dark gods had welcomed her with open arms and held her twisted, mangled body and given her something more precious than anyone could've realized.

They had touched her heart as a newborn and they touched her again at eighteen.

She rose to the surface and floated on her back and looked up at the cloudy sky and wondered how much more she had to tempt the fates until they struck her down again. She'd lost her family, she'd lost the only friend she had known since being a kid, and she'd lost her heart to a heartless monster, what more could be at stake?

She felt a playful giddy tug in her gut and she smiled. Didn't she like that ache? The horror? The blood? She'd certainly liked it with Klaus, especially when he took her from behind and on the guest bed in Naya's house. He'd taken her from herself and still, she thought of him and her heart did this horrible jump. He would come back for her and she was scared she would let him take her. That she would let him take her again, savagely, that he'd tear her anew.

Yet, there were always worse games to be played than the one of the heart and she could only hope it would spare her from something painful. But, then again, the gods and the fates never did take that into consideration.

AUTHOR'S NOTE ━━ok so more colette powers backstory ahhhh. also naya's truth slowly coming out of the woodworks too 

let me know what u all think!! also how u feel about rebekah+colette's slight moment lol

vote/comment and i'll ask for your hand in marriage