A group of teenagers followed along the windy path as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" One of the girls said, trailing a little behind. "The old cottage is said to be haunted."

One of the boys laughed. "Please, don't tell me you believe in ghost stories? Next thing you're gonna say is that Santa's real," He said, throwing a look over his shoulder.

"Okay, maybe it's not haunted but there's a reason no one ever goes near the place. It's fucking creepy," The girl argued.

"Lila's not wrong," The other girl, Nora, spoke up. "It may not be ghosts but who knows what creepy people hang around there."

"Yeah, and we didn't bring any weapons with us," Lila said, nodding in agreement.

"You don't need any weapons, you have us," The boy said, showing off his non-existent muscles.

"Wow, I feel so much safer," Lila muttered sarcastically under her breath so that only Nora could hear her.

"I know right," She said in agreement.

The other boy in the group suddenly looked up ahead. "There it is," He said, pointing.

The two boys grinned and started down the path, not noticing the uneasy looks shared by the two girls.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lila said as they followed after the boys, knowing there was no going back.

The cottage up close sent chills down Lila's spine. It wasn't large and was made out of logs. The entire cottage was overgrown with vines and black flowers that Lila felt like she should recognize, but didn't.

Looking over at Nora, she noticed a confused look on her face as she looked at the flowers.

"What is it?"

Nora looked back at her. "Those flowers normally don't grow on vines..."

Confusion filled her but before she could ask any questions the boys called them over. They went around the corner to see them breaking into the cottage.

Lila could feel her hair standing on their ends as the dark aura of the place surrounding them seemed to seep into her bone.

And based on the way Nora was rubbing her arms, she could feel it too. It was like every nerve was screaming at them to leave.

Of course, the boys were ignoring the warnings, which was hardly surprising, they always were stupid buffoons.

The air seemed to become thicker as they managed to get the door open. Lila swallowed - she really had a bad feeling about this.

If they were smart, she and Nora would just leave the boys behind, but the fact that they were even here in the first place showed that they weren't.

The two girls exchanged looks as the boys entered. "Let's just get this over with, so that we can leave," Nora said.

And, so, they follow.

The house was eerily quiet. So quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop from the other side of the house.

Lila walked further into the house, immediately noticing that everything looked old. Nothing was new, which meant this house was from a long time ago.

Somehow, the boys and Nora wandered off without her noticing, causing her even more unease. And just as she was about to go looking for them, a breeze came through blowing something past her face.

It landed in front of a closed door.
She walked closer to see what it was. It was times like this that she wished that humans had evolved to have night vision.

Once she was close enough, she could see that it was one of the flowers from the vines.

Kneeling down, she picked it up, feeling the soft black petals. She still didn't know what type of flower it was.

The name was at the tip of her tongue but stayed just out of reach.

A creaking sound came out of nowhere and Lila tensed, standing up quickly as she looked around her.

It reminded her of a creaky floorboard.

"Nora?" She called out. "Vincent? Jason?"

There was no reply, which didn't make any sense because the house wasn't that big. Quickly, she made her way back the way she came, looking around frantically.

Entering the old kitchen-looking place, she froze, on the ground were the boys laying there unmoving. The flower dropped from her hand as she ran over.

She tried everything she could think of to wake them, but nothing worked. Finally, she checked them for a pulse.

It wasn't there.

Horrified, she backed away and ran down the thin hallway, heading towards the exit. She needed to get help.

But before she could get there, she stumped over something and fell to the ground. It was Nora. Bile rose in her throat as she stared down at the blood seeping from her eyes, nose, and mouth.

"Oh my god," She whispered, hand moving to cover her mouth.

She was moving away when she heard another creak. Freezing, she slowly turned to see a woman standing a few feet away.

She was wearing an old-style black dress and had dark hair that fell past her shoulders. There was a cold look on her face that didn't match the smile she wore.

Lila stumbled to her feet and ran.

She made it back to the door where the flower had fallen and burst through, but what she saw in that room, caused her to be rooted in place.

There was a weird thin bed thing that sat in the middle of the room, but what confused her was the glass that was shattered all over the floor and bed thing.

What was this place?

"Did your parents never warn you against trespassing?" The woman's voice came from behind her and Lila whirled around.

The woman stood a few feet away and all Lila could feel was terror coursing through her veins.

"No? Well, that was likely no mistake on their part. Children love to misbehave and bite at the hand that feeds them, do they not?" She said, but Lila had a feeling she didn't want an answer.

"Who are you?" She said shakily.

Out of the corner of her eye, flowers were blooming as vines crawled across the walls of the room. Suddenly, she remembered what they were.

Black dahlia's.

Then, everything went dark.

<><><>

Josie groaned, feeling a stiff pain in her neck. She opened her eyes, rubbing her hand over her eyes to help clear them.

"Hey Josie," She heard Lizzie say and paused. She sat up and turned, freezing at the sight she saw.

Lizzie was grinning at her, looking way too pleased with herself, and beside her was Kai Parker, who was looking at her curiously.

Well, that explained why she died.

"Lizzie," Josie replied. Lizzie winked at her, making Josie want to groan, realizing that she probably didn't want to know whatever happened while she was out. She turned her gaze to Kai. "Uncle Kai."

"Are you psycho too?" He asked, dryly.

Josie sighed. "I see my sister didn't hold back," She said, turning to look at her.

Lizzie had an innocent look on her face. "I don't know what he's talking about. He's delusional," She said, straightening.

"Suddenly, I'm reconsidering you as my favorite blood relative," Kai said, raising an eyebrow.

"Please," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes. "No one can compete with me,"

"Lizzie, we really need to deflate your ego at some point," Josie said, shaking her head.

"You can try," Lizzie replied, looking way too pleased with herself. "I wish you luck."

Josie rolled her eyes and looked between the two. "So what's the plan here?"

Both Kai and Lizzie looked at her with matching looks of confusion.

"I'm sure you guys chatted while I was out, so what's happening?" She said, giving them a look. Understanding dawned in Lizzie's eyes.

"He agreed to the rules, so we can leave as soon as we can," Lizzie said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

Josie blinked. "Well, that was easier than I thought it was going to be," She muttered.

"What? Did you doubt me? I'm hurt, Josette," Lizzie said, a wounded expression on her face as she put her hand over her heart.

"My apologies for assuming that I would wake up to a bloodbath, but you can't deny that's what definitely would have happened if he wasn't willing to hear us out," She said, pointedly with a look at their uncle, who was just watching them.

She couldn't tell if he was plotting their deaths or if he was just using them as entertainment. Please, let it be the latter.

Josie was already exhausted from dealing with one homicidal maniac. She didn't need two. Although, the likelihood of her getting her preferred option was not very high.

Lizzie crossed her arms from where she stood a few feet away. "If you want to wake up to a bloodbath, that can be arranged."

Kai perked up. "I'll help," He said, a slight grin on his face.

"Okay," Josie said, slowly, wanting to move on from this conversation - it was bound to get them grounded. "How about we head back to Mystic Falls, so we can get the hell out of here?"

"Finally," Lizzie muttered, coming to stand behind her.

"What about the ascendant?" Kai asked, cocking his head to the side. "We're gonna need to find it if we want to escape."

Both of the twins turned to look at him. Did he really think they were stupid? He had been in the place for over a decade - they weren't falling for that shit.

Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "You mean the thing in your left pocket," She nodded, pointedly.

Kai paused and looked at said pocket. Then, reached in and pulled out the very thing they needed to get out.

"Oh, would you look at that?" He said with an awkward smile. "How'd that get in there?"

"No idea," Josie said, walking over. She grabbed it right out of his hand, making him blink at her in surprise. "Now let's go."

The hours it took for them to get back to Mystic Falls consisted of a multitude of insults and murder threats that Josie wasn't certain were a joke.

It was bizarre to watch - two people that knew very little about each other yet were somehow each other's mirror images.

They were either going to end up killing the other or become as thick as thieves. Josie wasn't sure that either would end well.

<><><>

Freya was pacing back at the house, while the others watched.

"Of all the irresponsible things for them to do, they just had to do the worst," She hissed out, not noticing the others pointedly move away from her. Not wanting to become a target of her anger.

"I am sure they'll be fine, sister," Kol said, watching her with amusement. "They are two of the most powerful beings alive."

Freya turned around quickly, making Kol raise his eyebrow at her. "I did not ask for your opinion, Kol, so keep it to yourself," She said, glaring.

He just rolled his eyes. Neither notice the others, besides Elijah, exchange looks at the name drop. Stefan cocked his head and seemed to nod to himself as if in confirmation.

"Besides, they may be powerful but they are reckless and they do not think things through, it will get them killed," She said, shaking her head.

"That may be, but it's unlikely they do not have precautions in place, for if things go wrong," Enzo said, leaning against the wall.

Freya looked at him. "Those precautions are useless if they are dead," She said, tensely.

Stefan walked over to her - placing his hands on her shoulders. "Frey, they'll be fine. For all their stupidity, they made it this far, haven't they?"

Freya narrowed her eyes. "And if they die?" She asked, pointedly.

"You can bring them back to life and ground them for eternity," Stefan said like it was obvious, which it was.

Enzo snorted. "Like they would allow that willingly to happen."
"Like they could stop her," Stefan said, looking over at him.

"I concede to your point," Enzo said with a small laugh.

Elijah looked around at them, clearly trying to keep up, but with his fairly limited knowledge of the situation, he was struggling.

Freya glanced at said brother, then sighed. "When they return, it's time we have a talk," She said, glancing around at them.

"About?" Kol wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"About everything," Freya said. "It's time we lay out what's going to happen so that the twins running off like this does not happen again."

"Sounds like a good game plan," Stefan said in agreement.

Enzo nodded, then paused. "Well, they have to first make it back alive." He said, pointedly.

Freya immediately leveled him with a dark glare that made him quickly hide behind Stefan, who looked both concerned and amused.

"Watch it," She warned.

Enzo gulped nervously as Stefan quickly moved away, leaving him directly in her line of sight.

He nodded quickly. "Understood," He said, then he was gone - off to go do god knows what.

Freya rolled her eyes and turned to Stefan. "Go get Davina - she needs to know what's going on."

He nodded and was gone in a flash.

Turning to her brothers, she ran a hand through her hair. "I managed to make it to a thousand without any grey hairs, now look at me," She said in exasperation.

<><><>

Lizzie entered the boarding house with Josie beside her. Kai was a few feet ahead making comments on anything and everything he saw.

"So are we planning on leaving today or tomorrow?" Josie wondered, glancing at her.

Lizzie shrugged, leaving it for Kai to decide. He was the one who'd been trapped here for over a decade.

"Tomorrow," He said, after a moment. "I need to gather a few things."

"Okay, that's fine. We can leave using the same place we entered, tomorrow afternoon," Josie said, placing her bag down.

With that, Josie ran off to find a room for the twins to sleep in, leaving Lizzie with their impulsive uncle, which felt like a mistake on Josie's part, but then again, her twin was not known for her foresight.

"So, dearest niece, where I am sleeping?" Kai said, turning to look at her.

"Do you have feet or not?" Lizzie said, shifting her own bag over her shoulder.

"I do," He said, looking curious as to where she was going with this.

"Ok, and do you also have some medical disability that prevents you from using them in correspondence with your eyes?" She walked past him, pausing to look back. "No? Then, get to walking."

However, that was not the end of the conversation, since her uncle was an entitled brat. Strange, since that title was normally reserved for Hope Mikaelson.

"You know you could be nicer to your uncle that you happen to owe your life to..."

Damn it, Lizzie should have known that he would hold that against them.

"And you should know that we're only doing this out of the tiny amount of love in our hearts and I have no reservation against saying fuck it and leaving you here," She shot back - only to immediately regret it.

Kai's face darkened for a moment before it went blank as Lizzie tried to figure out a way to take her words back without looking like a coward. Damn her and her big mouth.

"Do you really want to risk what would happen if you did that?" He said cryptically.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes, what was that supposed to mean?

"Is that a threat?" She said, tightening her grip on the bag's strap. Shit, she needed to shut up now or this could become nuclear.

"No, it's a warning," He said, a dark look on his face as he walked away.

She could feel the unease in her gut being smothered by the anger at what he said. She was going to tear someone's head off and it definitely wasn't going to be her sisters.

Her eyes followed his back as he disappeared from view. "Well, would you look at that, your feet do work," Lizzie muttered under her breath before going to look for Josie.

She found her in one of the rooms at the very end of the boarding house. Josie looked up as she entered.

"Hey, Liz, what do you think?" She asked motioning around them.

The room was definitely one of the larger rooms in the house with a king-size bed and its own bathroom attached. Huh, was this the master bedroom?

"It's good," Lizzie said, putting her bag down on the bed.

"Good," Josie said with a pleased smile. She looked towards the bed. "We're gonna have to share tonight. Is that okay?"

Why wouldn't it be?

Lizzie looked at Josie, confused. "Yeah, why?"

"I'm just checking," She said, not understanding her confusion. "Didn't want to assume."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "It's us - assume away."

"Yeah, yeah," Josie said, waving her hand dismissively. She looked towards the doors, curiously. "Where's Kai?"

"Having a temper tantrum," Lizzie said, grabbing a brush for her hair.

Josie paused. "Why?" She looked up abruptly. "What did you do?"

"Why are you assuming I was the one that did something?" Lizzie said, trying to deflect from the fact that she did in fact do something.

"First, it's you," Lizzie made an offended face - she wasn't wrong but still. "Second, you literally just said to assume."

"That was a completely different circumstance," Lizzie said, defensively.

"Is it really?" Josie said, doubtfully.

"Yes," was her indignant response.

"Lizzie."

"Seriously, is this really what you think of me? Every time something goes wrong or someone is upset. Oh, I know who did it. It must be Lizzie because she fucks everything up."

Josie flinched. "No, that's not it at all." Guilt flooded their bond. "I'm sorry for assuming it was you."

Lizzie tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "It's okay, I forgive you."

"So, Kai started it," Josie said.

"No, I did," Lizzie said, shrugging.

Josie's mouth dropped open. "Lizzie!" She whispered-shouted, looking pissed.

"What?" She said, innocently.

"Did you seriously guilt-trip me into apologizing?" She stared at her twin in disbelief.

"I mean, I never asked you to apologize," Lizzie said, fighting back her amusement.

Josie stared for a moment before signing. "I can't believe you," She said in exasperation.

"What? It's not my fault your so gullible," Lizzie said, crossing her arms.

Josie ran a hand down her face before shaking her head. "We got off track - what happened after I left?"

"Nothing much-" Josie stared her down. "-but I may have threatened to leave him behind."

"What the fuck?"

Lizzie winced. "Looking back, I realize it wasn't the best thing to say..."

"No, seriously, what the fuck?"

"Yeah, I know I messed up, I promise I'll fix it before we leave," Lizzie said, quickly, sensing her sister was about to blow her casket.

"No, you're going to fix it now," Josie said, shaking her head.

"What? Why?" Lizzie said, frowning.

She wasn't in the mood to talk to him, right now.

"Lizzie, think about if this was you, who was trapped here for over a decade in isolation, and you finally have an opportunity to leave, but one of your rescuers threatens to leave you. What would you do?" Josie said with a pointed look.

She paused, thinking. "I'd probably get mad and start thinking of ways to ensure my escape as well as ways to screw over...fuck," She muttered in realization.

"Yeah," Josie said, nodding.

"Right, I'm going," Lizzie said, rushing out of the room.

Well, this was bad.

Time to reassure her volatile uncle.

It took a few minutes to locate him, but when she did, she could feel the tension boiling in the air. Yep, he was mad.

He looked up as she entered the room. Lizzie walked over to one of the seats with a sigh.

"Look, I didn't mean what I said," She said, just trying to get it out before anything could blow up. "I have a tendency to say things without thinking."

Kai narrowed his eyes, not saying anything. It made Lizzie want to rip her hair out.

"We're not leaving you behind under any circumstances - I'm just a bitch that likes to hit where it hurts," Lizzie said through gritted teeth.

"You're self-aware, congrats," Kai finally said after a moment.

Lizzie saw red. "And you're-" She cut herself off, taking a deep breath, counting to ten.

Kai was looking at her in amusement, now.

"I'm what?" He said, egging her on as he leaned forward with his elbows resting on his legs.

"And you're not wrong," Lizzie finished.

"Okay," Kai said, shrugging as he leaned back.

"Okay? That's it?" Lizzie said, tilting her head, confused. "I don't need to grovel?"

Kai paused, blinking. "Grovel?" He said with a snort. "What were you going to do? Get on your hands and knees, begging?"

Lizzie felt her face get red with embarrassment. "No," She said petulantly.

"Sure," Kai said, looking far more relaxed than before. "I believe you."

The tension in the room had all but disappeared. See, Josie, she was capable of fixing her mistakes.

"Well, if that's all, I'm going to bed. Night, Uncle Kai."

Kai waved a hand. "Night, Lizziebear," He replied, making her roll her eyes.

The next day they entered the clearing, where they first appeared, and Lizzie glanced around, noting the similarities and differences from the real world to here.

"Shall we get the hell out of here?" Lizzie said, hopefully.

"Yep, I have everything I need. Finally, we're leaving this shithole behind" Kai said, sounding cheerful. "I'm not going to miss this place."

Josie smiled in agreement. "I don't blame you. This place is definitely hell if you spend any extended period of time here."

"Agreed," Lizzie said, ignoring the small part of her that thought the quiet was kind of nice in a way, but she could admit spending decades alone would be hell.

The three got into a circle as Kai pulled out the ascendant. Josie grabbed the vial of Bennett's blood, while Lizzie looked up at the sky, searching for the moment that the eclipse begins.

They all grabbed onto the ascendant as the sky darkened and the moon covered the sun. The words of the memorized spell came to the forefront of Lizzie's mind.

"Sangina Mearma, Ascendarum Cavea." The twins chanted in unison as Josie poured the blood onto the ascendant. The incantation was repeated as a glow formed around them and the mechanics of the ascendant began to shift and unlock.

The wind picked up and suddenly everything went white.

Then the glow settled and Lizzie glanced around her. There were small details that were different but the main thing that truly struck her was the noise.

Unlike in the prison world, this world was alive. Whether it be the pitter-patter of animals or the hum from the powerlines.

It was familiar and comforting.

The person standing a few feet away on the other hand was not.

Before Lizzie could even think of doing anything, she was hit by a wave of pain and everything went dark.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed. I would love to hear your thoughts and thank you all for reading <3