BAD BIRTHDAY

AS MUCH AS SHE HAD BEEN DREADING IT, Dinah's birthday soon came. She didn't wake with a smile on her face as she had in years prior. Instead, she woke to silence, already sick of the day. She had no doubt that her family would do their best to make the day happy, but she also knew that it was fruitless. It was her first birthday without her parents and that would have been sad enough on its own if it wasn't for how recently she'd lost them.

After a few moments of laying awake and simply staring at the wall, her bedroom door burst open and Selena came running in, jumping onto Dinah, laughing all the while. She managed a small laugh, rolling Selena off of her and to the empty side of the bed, where the younger girl crawled under the covers to lay with her.

"Mom's making you pancakes," Selena told her. "She makes the best pancakes."

"Thanks."

"Happy birthday. You're officially seventeen which makes you the Dancing Queen, Young and Sweet, Only Seventeen," Selena said, singing the last bit.

"Thanks," she repeated.

"Did your friends send any birthday messages?" Selena asked.

"Probably," Dinah said, rolling over and grabbing her phone. "I haven't even opened my phone yet. Don't even think I'm going to reply to them."

"Why not?"

"Honestly, they just remind me of Mystic Falls, which just reminds me of my parents," Dinah admitted. "And if I can avoid having a breakdown on my birthday, that'd be great."

"Stiles and Scott send their birthday wishes," Selena said. "So does Lydia, and even Allison, all the way from France. At least that's what Lydia said."

"Tell them thanks from me, then."

"Will do, boss. I was also thinking we could go out for a movie and ice cream tonight to celebrate. You, me, Scott, Stiles and Lydia. What do you think?"

"I don't think I'm feeling up for going out today, I'd rather just stay in. Maybe tomorrow, though."

"Okay," Selena said, sitting up. "Come on, then, let's go get breakfast."

─────────

LUCY HAD INDEED MADE HER BREAKFAST, warm and perfectly golden pancakes. The four of them all ate together, Lucy and Steven explaining the plan for the day. As it was a Tuesday, that did mean that they both had to work. Selena and Dinah would have the house to themselves for the day, and when they came home Lucy would make dinner and they'd do gifts.

This was all okay with Dinah, it would allow her to spend most of her day alone in her room. As much as she loved her family and was grateful for everything that they were doing, this was something that she had to work through on her own.

She did indeed get birthday wishes from her friends in Mystic Falls but they all went ignored. Part of her did feel bad that she was ignoring her friends but it just wasn't something that she could face today. She told herself that she would reply tomorrow, and apologize, even though she also knew that was a lie.

It didn't help anything, of course, that Dinah was sure she'd somehow caught some kind of bug. Her head was pounding on and off throughout the whole day, she had a new cough and felt like she was running a fever, not to mention that runny nose that meant she was walking around all day with a tissue in her hand. It knocked her on her ass more than the grief did.

Dinah remained in her room as she heard first her aunt and then her uncle return home. She heard the sounds of cooking and even the amazing smell of whatever her aunt was making. When it was ready, Lucy called everyone to the table and they ate — it was, indeed a wonderful meal — and then they gave their gifts to Dinah. The main gift was a photo of the whole family last Christmas, where they were all wearing their matching pajamas. It definitely made her cry.

After dinner had passed and Dinah had retreated to her room to put the new photo in a special place, she was sure that she would just get to relax for the rest of the night before she eventually passed out in her bed. But maybe an hour or so after dinner, her aunt called her name from the bottom of the stairs.

"Dinah, honey, can you come down here?"

"Coming!"

Wrapping herself up in a cardigan, Dinah left her room and jogged downstairs. Lucy didn't say anything, she simply gestured for her to come into the dining room, where Steven was already sitting at the table and waiting for them.

"What's going on?" she asked as she sat down across from her aunt and uncle.

"There's something that you should know, Dinah. Something about why your parents might have been killed. Something I know they were getting ready to tell you," Lucy said.

"Do you know something?" Dinah asked, scooting forward in her seat.

"Thalia told me that you learned about our little... family secret," Lucy said. "The magic, that is. And that you started practicing."

"Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Our coven, our family, that is, have a bit of a storied history," Lucy explained.

"I know," Dinah said.

"You do?" Lucy asked, looking extremely confused.

"Yeah, this is about the reincarnation thing, right? Or the Barnes-Mikaelson Alliance?" Lucy and Steven exchanged a glance. "Mom told me about it when I found out I was a witch, she even gave me Delilah's— my grimoire."

"Glad we don't have to explain that one," Steven muttered.

They're hiding something, that voice whispered to her.

"If that's not what this is about, what is it, then?" Dinah asked.

"The reincarnation, our history with the Mikaelson's, it's not the only thing that makes our coven's history... well, storied. When Thalia and I were about your age, our coven took down this incredibly powerful coven that was using their magic for evil."

"In revenge, this other coven cursed your bloodline," Steven added.

"Cursed?" Dinah asked hesitantly. "What do you mean cursed?"

"At the age of seventeen, every firstborn Barnes would be cursed of a slow and painful death. With no known cure, as the other coven wouldn't give up the answers when we sought them," Lucy explained.

Dinah sat back in the chair, shocked. Cursed to die a slow and painful death for something that she wasn't even a part of. She knew that witches could be vindictive and vengeful, but this was on a whole other level.

"What... what has this got to do with my parents being killed?" she finally asked.

"We planned on telling you girls only before your seventeenth birthdays so that you could live good lives without this horrible thing hanging over your heads. But we think that the other coven didn't want you to know what was happening to you so they killed your parents before they got the chance to tell you."

"You have to tell Sheriff Forbes!" Dinah said immediately. "She knows about the supernatural, Mystic Falls is practically infested. If you tell her, she can—"

"She can what, Dinah?" Steven said gently. "The other coven likely used magic to kill them so there won't be any evidence. She couldn't do anything even if she wanted to."

"Dinah, we aren't telling you this to torture you with your parents' murder being left unsolved," Lucy said, reaching across the table to put her hand over Dinah's. "We're telling you so that you know what's happening to you. Today's your seventeenth birthday and you've already started getting sick."

"This is just a cold, not—" She stopped when her aunt and uncle raised their brows at her. "This is the curse?"

"And it's going to get worse. We don't know much about it, but we do know that the stronger you are as a witch, as you die, you'll slowly start to lose your magic as it is given to the other coven. We don't know how long it will take and we don't know how it will progress."

"So I'm going to die slowly and painfully and you have no idea the specifics or how to reverse it. Great, that's great. Thank you so much. This is exactly what I wanted to hear on my birthday," Dinah said.

"There's one more thing," Steven said.

"What else could there possibly be?"

"You can't tell Selena about any of this. She doesn't know that she's a witch, that we are, that you are, any of that. We'd like to keep it from her for as long as possible so that it's less painful for her when she turns seventeen," Lucy said.

"She doesn't know?" Dinah questioned. "She doesn't know what she is or what she can do and you want me to keep it from her. This is insane. This is madness and I... I can't keep talking about this right now. I can't do it."

She stood abruptly from her chair and left the room, practically running up the stairs even as her aunt and uncle called her name. Dinah didn't stop until she was in her room and had closed the door behind her. She got into bed and pulled the covers over her head so she was completely hidden and she began to cry.

─────────

an. ehh we're back to the pain, who's surprised?