CHAPTER SEVEN
SPLINTERED RIBS

I woke up with the worst headache ever. I tossed and turned all night, but at some point I must have drifted off and gotten at least a few hours of sleep. I rolled over onto my stomach, smothering my face into the plushness of my pillows. My bedroom door suddenly burst open, Elena came sauntering in and jumped on the bed next to me. She placed a hand on my back and shook my softly.

"Elektra, sweetie, you need to get up." Elena cooed sarcastically.

I lifted my head up slightly before letting it plop back down onto the pillow. "No..." I groaned.

"Come on, you need to get up, so we can all go to the police station." Elena replied, starting to shake me harder.

"My head hurts." I whined. "I got slammed into a brick wall, and I got bit my a junkie-vampire - my body is suffering."

Elena chuckled and stood from my bed. "Just get up."

I rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. Once I was finished in the bathroom, I pulled on a pair of dark-washed skinny jeans, a maroon V-neck, and my white converse. I tied my hair back in a ponytail, covered the bite mark on my neck with makeup, before I went downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Wow, you looked wrecked." Jenna commented as I entered the kitchen. "I think you need this more than me."

I nodded in appreciation when she handed me the cup of coffee in her hands, but I didn't reply and she didn't push on the subject. Which I was glad. I didn't really want to go into detail about it either. The blood loss, Vicki's gray-veined body, Damon compelling Jeremy...it was too much.

The four of us ate breakfast in silence. And once we were done, Jenna drove us to the police station. We all sat in the waiting room, awaiting to be called. I leaned back in the chair, closing my eyes and resting my head against the wall.

Elena came out of the Sheriff's office, she took the seat next to me and nudged my arm with her elbow, motioning me to go. I sighed, slowing walking into the office and taking a seat.

"Where did Vicki say she was going?" Sheriff started questioning immediately, I barely sat down fully in my seat when she started blurting out questions.

"She didn't." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Did she tell her brother where she was going?" Sheriff asked me.

"Um, not that I know of, no." I replied.

I slumped in my seat. I don't want to be here, it's wrong to lie when you know the truth. I felt like I had a neon sign pointing at me. I was trying to be inconspicuous, but I still felt like I was giving too much away just by being here. I fought the urge to jump up and leave Sheriff Forbes' office. If I went home and stay there now, I'd really draw attention to myself. I stayed put. I kept my head down and tried to concentrate on what Sheriff Forbes' was asking.

"Well, is there anyone that may know what happened to her...prior to her leaving town?"

I curtly nodded. Stefan had told me that if she asked this question, to say his name. I guess he went to her house to try and talk to her before everything happened.

"Stefan Salvatore. I asked Stefan to help. I thought that by helping Vicki, he was helping my brother." I replied.

"What was her behavior like those last few days before she left?" Sheriff asked, her eyes narrowing slightly, making me feel small in my position.

"Up and down. Very sketchy, like, she was coming down from some major partying," I said, trying to dance around the subject of her being on drugs.

"Any signs of aggression or violence?"

Yes, she bit me and drank my blood.

"No," I answered solemnly.

"So you believe that Vicki Donovan really has left town?"

"Yes," I said.

"All right, you may leave." Sheriff said to me.

I nodded, standing from my seat and exited the office. My head pounded as I walked over to Jenna. "Hey, I'm going to wait outside. I need some fresh air," I told her.

Jenna nodded, not looking up from the magazine she was reading. I walked out of the station, allowing the cool air to consume me as I sat on the steps outside of the police station; clutching my throbbing head.

Suddenly, I felt a presence beside me. I glumly glanced to my right and saw Stefan sitting next to me. He offered me a small smile, placing a comforting arm around my shoulders.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like my brain is trying to hammer its way out of my skull." I groaned, massaging my temples furiously.

"The blood loss, and having your head
slammed against a brick wall will do that." Stefan said, thumbing circles into my shoulder-blade.

A wave a nausea suddenly came over me. I swallowed thickly and placed a hand over my mouth as the memories of last night replaying my mind. I felt the blood leave my face, while my stomach churned restlessly.

"Hey, are you all right?" Stefan asked. But before I could answer, Matt stormed out of the police station and Stefan stood up. "I was trying to help her, Matt. That's all."

Elena, Jenna, and Jeremy then came out. Elena caught sight of Stefan and I. "We'll meet you guys at the car." she told them and they nodded their heads and walked toward the car. Elena and Stefan now towered over my sitting form.

"You okay?" Stefan asked.

"I don't think the Sheriff suspected anything. Jeremy had no memory at all. All he knew was what Damon made him know." Elena replied.

"Thank you," Stefan said, as he leaned down and helped me stand up from the stone steps.

"I can't do this, Stefan. Every time I look at Matt or Jeremy...all I think is that Vicki is never going to come back. And they'll never know why." Elena said, wrapping a supporting arm around my shoulders. "Around you, people get hurt and people die and I just - I can't. It's just...it's too much."

"Why don't the three of us go somewhere and talk about it?" Stefan suggested.

"No," Elena said, shaking her head.
"Stefan, you have to stay away from me and Elektra."

I opened my mouth to argue, but closed it when I couldn't come up with a viable argument. Elena grabbed my wrist and guided us toward the car. The four of us sat in silence the entire car ride home.

When we got home, Elena sat down on the middle of the couch in the living room. I sighed, grabbed a pillow and placed it on her lap, and laid my head on it. Elena sighed this time, picking up a piece of my hair and began to twirl it around her finger. I closed my eyes at the feeling of her playing with my hair - it was peaceful.

Jenna chuckled at us, sitting down on the other side of Elena. "You guys are wallowing." She stated, staring at us.

"So are you," I grumbled, throwing my arm over my eyes, blocking out the burning light coming from the lamp on the side table.

"My wallow is legitimate. I was dumped." Jenna explained, her expression blank.

"Yeah, well, Logan's a jerk." Elena told her.

"You didn't get a brush-off email saying: 'I'm leaving town. See ya.'"

"Want to keep it down over there?" Jeremy called out from the kitchen table.

"Why, what are you doing?" I asked him, sitting up from my lying position so that I could turn around and look at him.

"Homework." Jeremy replied, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"Since when do you do homework?" Elena wondered, here and Jenna also turning around to face Jeremy.

"I've got to finish this. I'm way behind, and I have a quiz tomorrow, so..." Jeremy said, trailing off, flipping through the pages of his text book.

"What do you think? Alien?" I asked them suspiciously.

"Some sort of replicant," Jenna mumbled in response.

Jeremy's head snapped up, looking as if he were insulted. "He can hear you."

Later, I had gone up to my room to lie down and take a nap. I slept for a good hour, maybe two, before Elena came in and lied down next to me. I shifted so I was lying on my stomach, facing her.

"I'm miserable." Elena whined.

"Join the club, but my headache is gone." I said, giving her a semi-shrug of my shoulders.

We both lied under my covers and just stayed in my bed for hours, enjoying each other's company in silence. We had both ignored any text messages and phones calls coming in.

I groaned, getting annoyed with my phones constant buzzing. I reached over and glanced at the screen of my phone, my eyes widened at how many calls and texts I had received.

"Who's calling you?" Elena asked.

"Bonnie," I replied.

I sighed, my best friend was trying to contact me, and here I was, lying in bed with my sister - moping. A few minutes later, Bonnie came burst into my room. "You guy's up?" Bonnie asked, arching an eyebrow.

"No," Elena and I muttered in unison.

Elena and I lifted the covered over our heads, until Bonnie came and ripped them off of us. "No, no." I whined in protest.

"Why haven't you called me back?"

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Are you two going to stay in there forever?" Bonnie asked, glancing between Elena and I.

"Yep, sounds like the perfect plan." I countered, a smug grin on my face.

"Move over," Bonnie commanded, pushing Elena to the outer side of the bed, and she lied down between Elena and I. "I'm officially worried. What's going on?"

"I'm tired of thinking...of talking," Elena began.

"Can I get a one-line version so I can at least pretend to be helpful?" Bonnie suggested, the corner of her lips pulled up in a slight smile.

"Stefan and I broke up."

"I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Bonnie asked, Elena gave Bonnie a knowing look. "Right. Stupid question. I know I've been kind MIA when you guys needed me the most. I suck."

"You want to make it up to me? Get my mind off it." Elena offered, staring up at the ceiling.

"Just remember you asked for it." Bonnie said, getting up and closed my open window. She grabbed one of my pillows of my bed, took it out of the pillow case and ripped it open with the small pair of scissors she found on my side table.

"Hey, that's my pillow!" I shouted.

Bonnie rolled her eyes at my dramatic outburst and said: "Be patient."

"Okay," I mumbled sadly, staring at Bonnie as she dumped the feathers out of my cut open pillow.

"I need to swear you both to secrecy," Bonnie said, sitting on the bed in front of us.

"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff." I replied, fingering one of the fluffy white feathers on my bed.

"No, swear. Because I'm not supposed to be showing you this," Bonnie pointed out, serious.

"Okay, I swear." Elena and I said simultaneously.

"Okay," Bonnie said, nodding her head before she continued: "There's no windows open, right?"

I glanced briefly at the two windows in my room, they were both closed. "Right."

"There's no fan, no air conditioning."

"None, what are you doing?" Elena asked, her dark brows furrowing in confusion.

"Grams just showed me this. You're going to love it. You ready?" Bonnie asked, Elena and I nodded our heads, curious as to what the hell she was going to do.

Bonnie grinned, and looked down at the pile of feathers. She placed her hand over them, slowly lifted her hand up and a feather followed her head. My eyes widened. Bonnie slowly let her hand drop, and so did the feather.

"Bonnie, what's going on?" I asked her, shocked.

Bonnie's smiled brightened, and she put both of her hands above the pile of feathers. When she lifted them, a small group of feathers followed, floating about a foot above the bed. Bonnie let her hands drop again, Elena and I were giggling.

Bonnie glanced up slightly, and every single feather flew into the air around the room. My mouth fell open in shock. Elena and I both stood up from the bed, allowing the feathers to circle around us. I placed my hand over my mouth, amazed.

"It's true, guys. Everything my Grams told me. It's impossible, and it's true." Bonnie said. I chuckled, a feather rubbing against my nose. "I'm a witch."

"I believe you," I replied, looking down at her.

"I believe you, too." Elena spoke up.

"And I forgive you for destroying my favorite pillow - because this," I gestured to the feathers floating around me, "is well worth the death of my pillow."

Bonnie grinned, and we played around with the feathers for a little longer until things calmed down. The three of us were now sitting criss-cross on the middle of my bed.

"It's weird, huh? After all this time joking about being psychic...when I really am a witch," Bonnie said, twirling a feather in her hands. "You guys don't think I'm a freak now, do you?"

"Bonnie, of course we don't." I said, leaping forward and tackled her in a hug against the bed. Bonnie chuckled and pushed me off of her.

"Bonnie, I just - I don't understand, though. If your Grams asked you to keep this a secret, why did you tell us?" Elena questioned.

"You guys are my best friends, I can't keep secrets from y'all." Bonnie admitted.

A pang coursed through my chest, thinking about how Elena and I have been keeping so many secrets from her lately. We used to tell her everything and anything, but not anymore.

✥ ✥ ✥

"Elektra, I don't want to do this," Elena whined as soon as we pulled up to the Boarding House.

After Bonnie had left, I convinced Elena to come with me and talk to Stefan. It took a lot of groveling and begging and convincing, but I had finally gotten her to agree.

"You're not doing it by yourself, I'll be right there with you." I reminded her, making my way toward the front door, with a reluctant Elena right behind me. I raised my hand and rung the door bell.

"It's open, come on in!" A woman's voice called out from inside the house.

Elena and I shared a questioning look, before we opened the door and walked into the foyer. The two of us turned to see a blonde woman wrapped only in a white towel. The woman's expression was one of pure shock.

"Oh, my God," The woman gasped. "How -? Uh...oh. Who--?"

"I'm Elektra, and this is my sister Elena." I introduced us, trying to be polite. "Who are you?"

"Lexi. A friend of Stefan's." the woman explained.

I glanced at the stairs before I asked: "Is he here?"

"He's in the shower," Lexi said, gesturing upstairs with her left hand.
"Do you want to wait?"

"No."

"Well, I'll tell him you two stopped by." Lexi assured us.

"That's okay," Elena murmured, turning around and walking out of the house.

Lexi and I stared at each other in an awkward silence until I spoke: "I, uh - I'm just going to go." I stammered and pointed towards the door.

"Yeah, okay." Lexi said, completely uncomfortable with the situation.

I quickly walked out, not looking forward to the awkward car ride home with Elena. I knew that this was all my fault. And I also knew that I was a terrible sister for bringing her here in the first place.

Stefan was shrugging on a long-sleeve fanel, when he heard marching and hurried footsteps pounding up the stairs. Lexi barged in and hollered: "Are you out of your freaking mind?"

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked, confused of his best friend's sudden outburst.

"I just met Elektra and Elena. You have some serious explaining to do." Lexi said, holding up the picture Stefan kept of Katherine and Beatrice Pierce from 1864.

Lexi got dressed and began to apply her makeup, while Stefan had gone through the entire story of Elektra and Elena. "You have some serious emotional damage." Lexi told Stefan, while she applied her lip stick.

Stefan immediately shook his head and said: "No, it's not what you think. Neither of them are Katherine."

"Then they're related, because they could be quadruplets."

"I don't know," Stefan replied, shrugging his shoulders while shoving his hands into his pockets.

"You don't know? You didn't find out?" Lexi asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively as she rummaged through her makeup bag.

"No, maybe I don't want to know. I have...I have no desire to tie Elektra and Elena to Katherine and Beatrice." Stefan replied. Lexi then gave him a look. "Okay, yes, yes, the resemblance is what drew me in, but that's it. Katherine, Beatrice, Elektra, and Elena may look the same on the outside, but on the inside they are all completely different."

"Oh, so, Elena and Elektra aren't raging bitches, then, huh?"

"No. Elena, she's kind, and she's caring, and she's selfless. Elektra, she's sweet, and loyal, and she's open-minded and funny. But she's also warm and generous - and it's real. And honestly, when I'm around the both of them...I-I completely forget what I am."

"Oh, my God," Lexi whispered in awe and in shock as realization came over her at Stefan's dilemma. "You're in love with both of them, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Stefan sighed; ashamed. "Yeah, I am."

The car ride home was torturous. Elena ignored me. She did talk or do anything the entire journey back to the house. I thought that maybe I could hold my breath for the whole ride home and not talk to her, and jut avoid the subject completely. It turned out, I couldn't.

"Elena-" I began, but she cut me off.

"Don't, Elektra." Elena said harshly.
"Not even a word."

"I'm sure it was nothing -"

"Or he could be on the rebound."

I opened my mouth to tell her that Stefan wasn't like that, but before I could even get a word out, she held her hand up to silence me. My shoulders slumped in defeat. It was no use trying to argue with her.

"I don't care," Elena said. "I told you I didn't want to go, but you begged and pleaded until I agreed - and now I feel even worse than I did before."

"Would a party at the Grill make everything better?" I suggest, a half-hearted and hopefully smile on my face.

"Not even the slightest."

I rolled my eyes, well, there goes my Sister of the Year award. Elena trudged up to her room and locked herself in and I went up to mine and took a shower and got dressed. I put on a denim button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the few top button undone, and I matched it with a pair of white frilly shorts and brown sandals.

Once I had told Jenna where I was going, I got in my car and drove to the Mystic Grill. When I entered the Grill, I immediately noticed how packed it was. Leave it to Caroline to pull a party together in the matter of minutes.

After I mindlessly roamed around the Grill for a while, I saw Elena talking to Lexi. My head tilted to the side in curiosity, I stood up from my bar stool and walked over to the two of them.

"Hello, Elena. Towel Girl." I greeted the two of them.

Lexi chuckled and said: "Wow, you two really are twins; you both called me the same thing. But, it's okay, I've been called worst."

"Elektra, Lexi is Stefan's friend. She's a vampire, and they've known each other for a long time. She was just telling me some stuff about Stefan, and I'm going to go talk to him." Elena explained, and excused herself.

Lexi and I talked for quite a while, until Lexi excused herself to go and get a few more shots. I sighed, and leaned against a pillar nearby, watching Elena and Stefan play pool.

"Stefan smiles. Alert the media," Damon joked from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw him standing directly behind me. "You haven't given him a lot of reasons to be happy lately."

"No, you're right. Poor Stefan," Damon said, giving me a fake pout. "Persecuted throughout eternity by his depraved brother. Does it get tiring, being so righteous?"

I scoffed and replied: "It flares up in the presence of psychopaths."

"Ouch," Damon said, while I began to walk away. "Well, consider this psychopath's feelings hurt."

I stopped my retreat and turned back around to face Damon. "What did you do to my brother?" I asked, my eyes narrowed.

"I'm going to need a less vague question."

"When you did what you did to Jeremy's memory of Vicki...what else did you do to him?" I asked, watching as Damon walked closer to me.

"You asked me to take away his memory of fangs and," Damon did a fake and pathetic attempt at a growl. "And all the bad stuff. You wanted me to take away his suffering."

"But he's acting different. He seems okay with everything. And a little too okay. He's studying, he's not doing drugs, he's not drinking. Are you sure you didn't do something else?"

"Elektra, I took away his suffering."

Suddenly, while Stefan, Elena and I were playing pool, the Sheriff and two deputies entered the Grill with a frantic looking woman. The woman pointed a shaky finger, and I followed where she was pointing: Damon and Lexi.

The Sheriff handed the woman to the other deputies, and then she charged across the Grill. Sheriff Forbes looked at Damon, and then at Lexi, before plunging something into Lexi's side. Lexi suddenly fell weak.

Lexi fell back into the arms of the deputies and they began to drag her through the Grill and out the exit. Stefan instantly became alert and stiff.

"Oh, my God." Stefan mumbled.

"What is it?" Elena asked. I rolled my eyes at her stupidity. Stefan then grabbed both of our hands and began pulling us toward the door, but it was blocked by a couple of cops.

"Can't go out this way." The cop on the left said.

I looked up at Stefan, and he looked panicked. He began running towards the back. Pushing through the crowd, he had let go of mine and Elena's hands, he knew we were following him, getting shoved by people in the meantime.

We finally made our way through and found a back exit. We ran and made it outside. I heard gun shots and hissing, and me being my stupid self, I began to run towards the gun shots, instead of away. I looked around the corner, to see Lexi closing in on the Sheriff.

Lexi was about to attack her, but Damon stepped in between them, and plunged a pointed wood stake through her chest. I gasped and Stefan clasped a hand over my mouth, pulling me back out of sight and holding me against his chest. I felt myself trembling. How could he kill her?

"You okay?" Damon asked, turning to face the Sheriff.

"Thank you," Sheriff Forbes said, but glanced down at Lexi's decayed body. "Get it in the car, quickly."

Damon nodded and began to do as she said. I felt a tear escape and bounce off of Stefan's skin. A soft sob left my lips and muffled into Stefan's palm over my mouth. Damon heard me with his heightened hearing, and turned and looked at me.

I know he did because he stood there staring at me with an apologetic expression. "Are you okay, Damon?" Sheriff asked interrupting our stare.

"Yeah," He responded.

✥ ✥ ✥

"Stefan," I called out as Elena and I chased after him. "Stefan, wait." I jogged up to him and grabbed him arm, forcing him to turn around and face us.

"He killed her. He killed Zach, he killed Tanner, he turned Vicki. I have to kill him." Stefan pointed out, turning back around.

"No, you can't do that." I protested.

"Why are you trying to save him, Elektra? He's never going to change, don't you see that? He's never going to change!" Stefan seethed, his voice rising with every word.

"I'm not trying to save him. I'm trying to save you. You have no idea what this will do to you. Please, Stefan." I said, I could hear my voice breaking.

"Everywhere I go, pain and death follow. Damon follows me. No more." Stefan said.

"Stefan, please, please, just talk to us. Let us be here for you."

"No. No, you two were right to stay away from me." Stefan said, before taking off into the night, leaving Elena and I in tears.

✥ ✥ ✥

not edited.