CHAPTER TWO
❝DYING TO LIVE❞

Elektra Gilbert found herself situated between her twin sister, whom she was hardly speaking to at the moment, and their witchy friend: Bonnie. They stood behind a large truck that was loaded down with different carnival prizes as she looked down at the clip board in her hands. A large white banner was hanging loosely above them and in thick red letters read: MYSTIC FALLS ANNUAL HIGH SCHOOL CARNIVAL.

    Bonnie pursed her lips, leaning against the truck as she thought back to the evening before when she had a run in with Katherine and Beatrice at the Lockwood Mansion. "I mean, they looked just like the two of you. It was freakish."

    "They are our ancestors," Elektra sighed, roughly scribbling down on the check list that they needed to bring out more T-shirt prizes for one of the booths. "Hey, I moved the student booths into the cafeteria."

    "Your vampire ancestors," Bonnie announced, the twins glancing over at the curly-haired witch. "And they didn't just resemble the both of you, like a family member would — it was like they were you."

    Elena yanked a bag filled with stuffed animals off the back of the truck, turned on her heels and made her way over to the booth behind them in a desperate attempt to escape the conversation of Katherine and Beatrice. But to no avail when Bonnie and Elektra moved to follow after her.

    "I-I don't know. I can't explain it, okay? It's creepy. That's all I got." Elena proclaimed, placing the plush prizes behind the counter at the game booth they were standing at.   

    "Well, how do you know that they're still not out there pretending to be either of you?"

    Elektra moved her eyes away from the clip board, briefly looking toward Bonnie. "We don't. But, we could sit here and be tortured by the not knowing–" she paused, grabbing another bag of prizes before moving to the next booth, "–or we could get these prizes to the ring toss."

    "Okay," Bonnie sighed, taking the clip board from Elektra's grasp. "Have either of you talked to Damon since he killed Jeremy? Or – Or tried to kill Jeremy?"

    "No, Bonnie, we haven't," Elektra replied immediately, like the entirety of the memory had been scarred into her memory-bank for all eternity. Her mind still pulsating; not fully understand why Damon had done what he did. "And we won't and I don't want to talk about Damon or anything else that's vampire-related, okay?"    

     "Copy that." Bonnie said, wrapping her arms around the bag of prizes Elektra had shoved into her chest, the fuzzy coats tickled her nose and caused her to sneeze.

    "We're human, and we have to do human stuff, because otherwise, we're going to go crazy."

    "Okay, I'm sorry. I'll focus," Bonnie apologized, offering them a small smile. "We have to make Caroline proud or she will kill us. I don't know how she does this all the time."

    "That's because she's not human, obviously."

    "Obviously."

✥ ✥ ✥

"It's the same as the bracelet Elena gave you," Stefan said, holding out a small vile for Jeremy to take.

    "So it protects me from compulsion?"

    Stefan nodded. Jeremy holding the vile up to his nose, taking in the pleasant smell of vervain. It was ironic. A plant that smelled so charming and look so beautiful was actually the opposite. It was toxic — harming any vampire it could get its hands on.

    "Vervain is toxic to vampires."

    Jeremy's curiosity was peaked. "You mean, like, poison?"

    "Yeah, it's very poisonous. It'll keep them out of your head."

    "But why vervain?"

    "I don't know," Stefan shrugged, leaning against the wall of lockers. "There's certain natural herbs and roots and other elements...that are just harmful to vampires."

    "Like a stake through the heart?" Jeremy asked, trying to pry as much information he could from Stefan.

    "Right, but it has to be wood."

    "You're pretty confident in yourself telling me all the different ways I could kill you."

    Stefan huffed. "Jeremy, if I thought you wanted to kill me, we'd be having a much different conversation, okay?"

    "And Damon is the one that deserves it," Jeremy sighed.

    Stefan eyed the young Gilbert for a few moments, practically smelling the anger spewing out of his pores. "I want you to forget about Damon, all right? He's a hundred times stronger than you and right now he's not stable. You gotta try to move forward."

    Even more anger flooded Jeremy. "I was killed by a vampire and brought back to life by a magic ring. How — How do you move forward from that?"

    "Today, we have a nice distraction courtesy of the slave driver Elektra," Stefan announced to Jeremy, his heightened hearing expertly picking up on the sound of Elektra approaching them. "Hello, Elektra," he greeted, turning to face her before placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

    She smiled up at him briefly then turned her attention to her brother, who was adjusting the strap of his backpack on his shoulder. "Hey, um, Jeremy–"

    Jeremy nodded, already knowing what she was going to say. "Yeah, yeah, I set up the goldfish toss — all three hundred goldfish. It's gonna be epic," he finished for her, giving them a small smile before slamming his locker shut and disappearing down the crowded hallway of the high school.

    Elektra sighed, moving to stand in the spot where Jeremy had just been standing. Stefan rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat: "Yeah, he's gonna be all right. He's just been through a little bit of an ordeal."

    "I was just hoping that this carnival would reel him back into the land of high school teenager."

    Stefan's dark eyebrows shot upward in mock surprise, leaning against the locker next to Elektra, "Oh, is that what we're doing here?"

    "Yes, we all are," Elektra clarified. "We're gonna be boring high school students who live in a world where the v-word is not uttered."

    "Got it."

    "And then later," Elektra began, a sly smile forming on her lips as a sudden rush of confidence entered her bloodstream. "You're going to take me on the Ferris Wheel, we're gonna ride to the very top, and then you're gonna kiss me and my heart will flutter like a normal high school girl. Do you see a running theme here?"

    A cheeky smile appeared on Stefan's face at the thought, "Yeah, I'm seeing it. I'm liking it, but I have a quick question. Um, what do you do about Damon?"

    "Uh, no D-word, okay?" Elektra immediately said. "That has been deleted from the list of topics that we can discuss."

    "Unfortunately, Beatrice and Katherine showing up has him in a little bit of an odd place. A little off-kilter; kind of dangerous. Who knows what he's up to."

    She sighed, knowing that they were never going to be able to escape the topic of Damon Salvatore any time soon.

    By the time Elektra had caught up with Bonnie and Elena it was nightfall. The carnival was in full swing — people of all ages running around playing the games and riding rides; kids were squealing in delight while stuffing cotton-candy in their mouths. A thin sheen of sweat lined her forehead, the night's events had taken a toll on her.

    "The ring toss is out of Bart and Homer dolls and Team Jacob tees," Bonnie listed off to Elena, who had been the one to manage the stock of the games.

    "Okay, I'll grab some from Science Club."

    Elektra cleared her throat, looking down at the clipboard in her hands. "Oh, and we also lost a speaker in the karaoke booth."

    "Hey, all good, Elektra," Bonnie commended with a toothy grin. "You guys, take a beat, look around — this is a huge success."

    "You mean, the Gilbert twins can do more than just wreak vampire havoc?"

    Bonnie gasped, "Go figure."

    While Bonnie and Elektra giggled, Elena turned her attention to a dark-skinned guy. He was screwing something onto the base of a booth in front of them. "Hey, uh, Carter, right? You're with the carnival."

    Carter nodded, shoving the screwdriver back into the pouch on the tool-belt fastened around his waist. "That'd be me."

    "Okay, great."

    "Wow," Carter whispered, eyes roaming over Bonnie's body. "What do you need, beautiful?"

    Bonnie's cheeks and neck heated at the compliment. She suddenly became flustered and shy. "What do you know about karaoke speakers?"

    "Why don't you show me the problem?" Carter asked, smirking.

    Elena turned to face Bonnie, a knowing glint in her dark eyes. "Yeah, Bonnie, show him the problem."

    "Okay," Bonnie managed to squeak. "Come on."

    "Come on?"

    Bonnie gave a glance back at Elektra and Elena, skipping forward, all her teeth sparking in the bright lights twinkling above them. With that, Bonnie and Carter turned away from the twins and began their journey to fix a broken speaker. Their laughter could be heard long after they disappeared from sight. Elena smiled, too, but kept her distance from Elektra. During the days they had spent not talking to one another, she'd thought Elena had gotten over her aversion to her. But she'd gone back to exactly how she had acted when she found out about her and Stefan — avoiding her as much as possible.   

    "Time to check the rest of the booths," Elena declared. She put her cool hand under Elektra's elbow and towed her to one of the booths nearby.

    Elektra put on her best martyr face. "Elena, I know I told you I wouldn't say anything—"

    "But of course you're going to anyway," she interrupted, smug. "I don't want to talk about it, Elektra. That's that. When I say I don't want to talk about something, it means that I don't want to talk about it." She yanked the box of T-shirts from her sister's hands and placed it behind the counter of the booth.

    That had been another thing she hated about Elena — she was always one step ahead of her.

    "Yes, and Elena always gets what she wants," Elektra shot back, grinning. Before Elena could reply, she heard his booming footsteps coming up from behind her, and she couldn't seem to fight off the scowl that took over her expression.

    "Elektra — Elena," Damon called out.

    "What do you want, Damon?"

    "I know I'm the last person either of you want to see, right now, but I need the both of you to come with me." Damon muttered, a quiet and serious meaning intertwined with his words.

    "Whatever it is, we're not interested," Elena spat.

    "Yeah, I need the two of you to come with me right now, Elena."

✥ ✥ ✥

"How did this happen, hmm?" Stefan asked, fingers tentatively running along his jaw as he anxiously paced across the tiles in Alaric Saltzman's classroom. His mind was reeling. He just couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that Caroline Forbes — insecure and neurotic Caroline Forbes — was now a freshly turned vampire.

    All thanks to Katherine Pierce.

    Damon folded his arms over his chest, perching atop of Alaric's desk. "Well, I fed her blood and Katherine obviously killed her. And A plus B equals..."

    "But why?" Elektra pondered, running a hand through her curls. "Why would she want to turn Caroline?"

    "Because Katherine is a manipulative, nasty little slut," Damon announced, a certain harshness in his pale eyes.

    "And she said, "Game on"?" Stefan repeated, clarifying what Caroline had been told by Katherine to tell Damon. "I mean, what does that even mean?"

    "It means they're playing dirty — they want us to know." Damon said, pursing his lips.

    Elena sighed. "But why Caroline?"

    Damon huffed in response, rolling his neck around like the entire situation had been beneath him. Like it didn't matter that Caroline could possibly be out there killing everyone in sight. Elektra's nostrils flared in anger — she never understood why everything was such a joke to him — especially when it was life and death. It made her want to reach out and strangle him. At least it would shut him up for a few minutes.

    Stefan ran his hands through his hair, tugging on the ends in exasperation. "Caroline must be completely out of her mind. She has no idea what's happening to her."

    "Oh," Damon drawled out, throwing his head back and stared up at the ceiling, "I think she does. All of my compulsion from the past started wearing off the minute she was in transition."

    "We have to find her."

    "Yep, and kill her."

    Elektra's back stiffened. "You're not going to kill Caroline."

    "She knows who we are. She's officially a liability — we have to get rid of her." Damon explained in a failed attempt to justify his reasoning for wanting Caroline staked.

    "Damon," Stefan said, his voice low and serious, "Absolutely not."

    "Need I remind you of a tragic little story of a girl named Vicki Donovan?" Damon asked. Elektra's demeanor instantly changed; finding herself reaching up to rub the spot on her neck where Vicki had sunk her fangs into. "Yeah. Caroline of all people will not make it as a vampire. Her mother is a vampire hunter. Guys, come on. We all know how this story ends. So, let's just flip to the last chapter and—"

    "It's not an option, Damon," Elena hissed, voice cracking at the end as tears pooled in her eyes.

    "No?" Damon taunted, eyes landing on Stefan. "Your silence is deafening, Stefan."

    Elektra looked toward Stefan. His pine green eyes were casted downward, seeming to be studying the tiles as he faintly shook his head — physically shaking out the worse-case-scenarios that were running through his mind. She could see it on his face. She knew that he was seriously contemplating what to do. Actually taking into consideration what Damon had suggested.

    "Wasn't there a school carnival the night you staked Vicki?" Damon probed. "Talk about a town where history repeats itself. You know I'm right."

    Stefan then moved toward Damon, squaring up to his older brother. "We're not going to kill her."

The three of them were looking all over the carnival for Caroline. They weren't leaving a single place unchecked. Not leaving a thing to chance. Whether or not Damon was right, Caroline was out there — alone and hungry. She was going to be on the look out for something...someone to snack on. And they couldn't let that happen.

    But, in the back of her mind, she knew that Damon was right in a way. Caroline was literally a walking sack of emotions; that alone was enough for her to qualify as a "bad vampire" just like Vicki. It pained her to think that the only solution was to kill her. It made her chest ache and her stomach churn. She wanted nothing more than to hit the reset button on her entire life — but life wasn't that simple, and there weren't any redo's.

    As they marched across the fair grounds, Elektra could see Stefan's muscles tightening beneath his shirt. He was stressed. Stefan was just like her and Elena — he held such strong emotions toward others, not just the ones he cared about, but everyone. And it made decisions like this that much harder.

    "You agree with Damon, don't you?"

    Silence.

    "Stefan?"

    His jaw clenched, making his way over to an empty concession stand and punched it. A large dent was left from the amount of force behind his swing. He breathed out through gritted teeth, rubbing the back of his neck in exasperation.

    "Stefan..." Elektra called out again, jogging to catch up to him. She reached out and grabbed his tense bicep. The familiarity that surged through him when she touched him instantly calmed him, "Stefan, hey."

    "Damon's right," Stefan replied quickly. "Not about what we should do, but about what's going to happen. Katherine all but signed Caroline's death sentence."

    Elena shook her head. "Well, we can't let it end that way."

    Elektra anxiously picked at her nails. "They're doing this to Elena and I, aren't they?"

    Stefan scoffed. "Actually, they're doing this to me."

    "It's not your fault, Stefan," Elektra assured, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure this out."    

    Suddenly, his entire body stiffened. His face morphed into one of horror. The revelation had put Elektra and Elena on high-alert — glancing around to see if they could see what he saw. But to no avail. They were just whirling around like a couple of idiots.

    "Stefan, where is she?"

    "Do you hear her?"

    "What's going on, Stefan? What is it?"

    "Blood," Stefan deadpanned, eyes staring in a certain direction. "I can smell blood."

    And with that, they took off. They had reached their destination a lot faster than Elektra had expected — following Stefan's keen sense of smell. And now, not only could Stefan smell the blood, they could see it. Caroline's blonde head was buried in Damon's neck, blood staining the area around her mouth.

    A bloody body lied motionless on the bed of the truck. His legs were bent in an awkward angle as blood pooled around from the gaping wound on his neck. Carter's dark eyes were glazed over with certain death, staring blankly off into the distance.

    Damon raised his arm, a sharpened stake in hand. Elektra gasped, taking a step forward to react but by the time her foot touched the ground Stefan had already rushed forward and pushed Damon away from Caroline. The stake clattered to the ground, Damon stumbling further away in anger.

    "Stefan!" He growled out.

    Elektra and Elena ran to Caroline in a desperate attempt to console her. They both reached out to touch her but before they could, Caroline shoved them away. Elektra stubbled backward, tripping over her own feet and almost falling to the ground. The blonde stared at them in distaste; wanting nothing more than to get as far away from them as possible.

    "Get away from me!" Caroline shouted. "You killed me!"

    Elena shook her head, slowly easing back toward Caroline. "No, no, no, Caroline. That wasn't me. That was Katherine."

    "No!" Caroline screeched, her voice high and hoarse. "Then why did she look like you? Why? Why did she do this to me?"

    Elektra stepped forward, reaching out to rub Caroline's shoulder. "Stefan, we've gotta get her inside."

    "It's all right, Caroline, come with me," Stefan said, taking Caroline's hand in his own while keeping a close eye on Damon; making sure that he didn't try anything.

    "She will die. It's only a matter of time," Damon announced.

    "Yeah, maybe so — but it's not going to happen tonight."

    "Oh, yeah, it is."

    Using his supernatural speed, Damon grabbed the stake and rushed toward Caroline. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Elektra pulled herself away from Stefan and stood in front of the freshly turned vampire — using her body as a shield to protect Caroline from her impending death.   

    "Elektra!" Stefan shouted in fear, not knowing if Damon would be able to stop himself before he hurt her.

    She gasped. The intake of breath was so sharp that it made her throat hurt. Damon was so close to her now. Their chests pressed together; hearts pounding wildly. There was a murderous glint in his gray eyes — he had been dead-set on driving that stake through Caroline's heart — ending her new-life before she even had the chance to live it. The sharpened end of the stake was mere inches away from Elektra's own heart, making her squirm under it.

    "Damon," Elektra began softly, but with a certain stern underlining. "She's my friend."

    Damon stared down at her. His pale eyes searched her face for a moment. "Whatever happens, it's on you," he said, pointing accusing fingers at her.   

    "It's okay, come on," Stefan shushed Caroline, turning toward the building behind them. There, standing in front of it, was Bonnie. The young witch had a horrified look on her face as she stared at Caroline — the blood around her mouth meaning only one thing.

    "Caroline? No. You're not. You — You can't be." Bonnie denied, refusing to believe that her best friend was now one of the very creatures she hated. She rushed forward, pushing passed Stefan and grabbed Caroline's arm. Her expression fell flat; she felt the same bone-chilling feeling...death. She had felt it so many times before; Stefan — Damon — Beatrice...now, Caroline.

    "Bonnie..." Caroline whimpered, tears welling up in her eyes.

    Bonnie shook her head, stepping away from her. Now, being able to see the truck, was when she rushed over to it. A pain surged through her chest as she approached Carter's lifeless body.

    "Go with her," Elena whispered to her sister. Elektra gave her an unsure glance before she nodded and followed after Stefan and Caroline into the restroom.

    Stefan and Caroline were standing next to the sink. Caroline's sobs being the only thing breaking the silence in the restroom. She stared down at her bloodied hands in disbelief — not being able to the look on Bonnie's face out of her head. Stefan began to pump paper-towels out of the dispenser. He got them wet from the faucet, planning to use them to clean off the blood on Caroline's face.

    "It's all right — come here," Stefan whispered, tucking Caroline's tangled hair behind her ear, beginning to wipe off her face.

    "She hates me," Caroline proclaimed, trying to push Stefan away.

    "No, she doesn't, Caroline," Elektra said softly, placing a comforting hand on her back.

    "Bonnie hates me." Caroline repeated, sobs breaking through her speech.

    "No, no, no, she's just in shock. We all are, okay?" Stefan coaxed.

    Caroline began to whimper, as though she were in pain. "And what about Matt? What am I suppossed to do about Matt?"

    "Shh," Elektra lulled, running her hand up and down her back.

    "One thing at a time," Stefan advised. "Let's just get this blood cleaned off."

    Caroline nodded, beginning to try and clean the blood off her hands. She angrily rubbed the paper-towel over her flesh, feeling the harsh sting left behind from how hard she was scrubbing.

    "I'm a murderer — I'm a monster."

    "You're emotions are heightened right now. It's a part of the transformation. It's completely normal. I promise you, okay?"

    Caroline started to pant, her eyes flickered upwards and she noticed the dark purple veins forming underneath her eyes. She groaned and quickly turned away from the mirror, "God! And why does this keep happening to my face?" she sobbed and covered her face with her hands. "I'm hideous."

    "Caroline — look at me, look at me. Caroline. Look at me, look at me." Stefan commanded urgently, "Look at my face. Look at my face. Shh, shh. Look, look." Caroline peeled her hands off of her face and saw the saw veins appear underneath Stefan's eyes, "See it? You see that? Yeah?" Stefan asked and Caroline nodded, "When you feel the blood rush, tell yourself you're going to get through it." Caroline shook her head, "That you're strong enough. Yes. No matter how good it feels to give yourself over to it you fight it off, you bury it. Watch me. Watch me." Stefan said, Caroline stopped sobbing for a moment and noticed that the veins were gone from under his eyes. "That's the only way you're going to survive this thing. Try. Shh. Try."

    Caroline nodded and began to follow Stefan; taking in deep breathes and letting them out. She continued to do this until the blood rush subsided.

    "That's good," Stefan smiled softly.

    Caroline gulped, "Why did Katherine do this to me?"

    Stefan caressed Caroline's cheek with his thumb, "I don't know. I wish I did. Hey, I promise you, I will not let anything happen to you. Come here," Stefan then wrapped his arms around Caroline and brought her into his embrace.

✥ ✥ ✥

Elektra stirred in her sleep, feeling soft fingers stroke the side of her face. Her nose scrunched up at the feeling, rolling over to the other side of the bed. And suddenly, there were lips being pressed against her forehead. She abruptly turned her head toward the presence and pried her eyes open.

    Her cloudy eyes scarcely made out the features of Stefan's face. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head — trying to regain her focus and opened them again.

    "Mmm...hi," Elektra greeted sheepishly, her voice low and hoarse from sleep. "What time is it?"

    "It's almost dawn," Stefan said, smiling down at her. "Come with me."

By the time they had gotten back to the fair grounds, Elektra was shaking. The chilly Virginia air nipped at her exposed face and neck. She stuffed her hands in her jacket and pushed herself into Stefan's side. Trying to siphon up some of his warmth.

    "Stefan, what are we doing here? We're going to get caught."

    "Well, I compelled the guard to go on break so I could kiss you on top of the Ferris Wheel."

    Elektra let out a wistful chuckle, staring up at the flashing Ferris Wheel. "Stefan—"

    "We have to take these moments, Elektra. All right? What Katherine did to Caroline could just be the beginning. And — And then there's things with Tyler's family that we don't even understand yet. And there's always the D-word. But...But I came back to this town to start a life with you." Stefan cupped Elektra cheek in his hand. "We can't forget to live it."

    Elektra nodded and smiled. "But, Stefan, how are we going to get to the top?"

    "I guess you'll just have to hold on tight."

    Stefan wrapped his arms around Elektra, pulling her into his chest. He used his strength to push himself and Elektra off the ground. She gazed out in amazement as they rose higher and higher toward the top of the Ferris Wheel. They landed in the seat roughly, causing it to rock back and forth, but he held onto her and kept her steady.

    Elektra smiled widely, laughing quietly as she looked back down at the ground. She moved back to meet Stefan's eyes, seeing that he was already staring at her with a pleased expression.

    "What?"

    "It's just so nice to see you laugh."

    She smiled, looking down at their intertwined fingers. He placed his hand on her cheek once more, tucking her hair behind her ear before slowly leaning down at placing his lips against hers. He could hear Elektra's racing heart and it caused him to smile fondly as they pulled apart.

    "It's not going to get any easier, is it?"

    Stefan sighed, "No, it's not."

✥ ✥ ✥

not edited.