chapter thirteen,      what is it like to be a woman?

EVERYTHING WAS GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN. Correcting the rearview mirror to look at Ophelia's lifeless body in the back seats, Damon slightly shook his head. He couldn't keep the nerves away. Stefan kept looking back at the seats, watching if she was showing any signs of life.

Two days have passed. Ophelia still hasn't woken up.

"She'll hate us," Stefan concluded, looking ahead to the road.

Tapping the wheel, Damon shook his head as they were far away from Mystic Falls. "We're doing this for her. She'll forgive us."

"We should've told her this."

Damon looked at his brother for a second, disapproving. "You saw how righteous she is. You saw how keen she is to keep her promises. It's our sister we're talking about. We couldn't just give her to him."

Sighing, Stefan closed his eyes for a moment. They made this plan as soon as they found out that Ophelia held the power necessary for Klaus. Necessary to create more hybrids. They knew that Ophelia would've never agreed with them and obeyed. She thought that by holding her end of the promise, Klaus will as well. But the Salvatores knew better. They didn't know the extent of what was waiting for her, and they wouldn't just sit there and wait for her to come back.

That's why, as soon as Klaus turned into a wolf and ran away from the instinct of a blood-thirst, the Salvatore brothers took their sister, a car and a few things, getting away from Mystic Falls, keeping in contact with Elijah to hear if Klaus was back.

Stefan's phone dinged and he pulled it out to see a message from Elijah. He sighed, "Klaus is back. And he is not happy."

"As if he was a ball of sunshine," Damon mumbled, looking at the road as the sun that was setting on the horizon. "I just—don't understand how our sister is involved in all of this. Why couldn't she just rest peacefully after all she has been through?"

Stefan looked back at Ophelia, his eyes softening. "I don't know," he admitted. "I really don't know." Taking out a map from the glovebox, opening it. "We're getting near to Jackson. We should stop before it gets dark for a second."

They were about thirteen hours away from Mystic Falls. They took all the roundabouts, going left and right where they could. They knew Klaus had people everywhere, so they had to be seen in many different locations, changing rental cars as often as possible. Their main goal right now was to confuse Klaus about their whereabouts.

At the same time, they were putting a lot of danger on the people that are in Mystic Falls. On Elena. But they knew that Klaus wouldn't go around torturing people important to them to find Ophelia. Elijah will see to it. Once Ophelia is hidden safe enough, Stefan will come back to Mystic Falls to confront Klaus and negotiate better terms for their sister.

"I'll stop at the next gas station," Damon informed, noticing that they needed a refill.

After ten minutes, they reached a gas station, about a few miles away from Jackson. Damon stepped out of the car to get some gas and Stefan got out of the car to just walk for a few seconds. The sun was already set, and the lights in the gas station were eerily lightening up the empty asphalt.

Meanwhile, in the car, the fingers of Ophelia twitched for a few seconds. Her chest expanded as her lungs filled with oxygen that was painfully getting in the creaks of her body.

Finding solace in death was something she never thought she would experience. But there was something so peaceful about death – you just died. And for a few seconds, it didn't hurt. Your mind didn't wonder what was going to happen. Complete and utter silence, covered with a veil of darkness. But then the nightmares came.

Dying was easy, but death was horrifying. And even if the girl's broken soul didn't believe in heaven and hell anymore, a part of her wished to have a good afterlife. But she knew better – she knew death was just one, repetitive nightmare. The same drowning. The same bitter taste of water. The last breath, filling your lungs with oozing poison.

Everything ached and the wheezing mind alerted her that she was alive. Again. Regaining consciousness, her body twitched as if reminding her of the limbs that were intact, of the ability to move them. Opening her eyes, some sort of light drilled right into her skull, making her shut them tightly again. Her last memory crashed in the back of her head – the way she died. The way his lips were on her shoulder as his fangs lulled her to sleep. He promised that he would be gentle. And he was.

Forcing herself to open her eyes, she pushed her head upwards, trying to figure out where she was. Looking at the pillow beneath her, she pushed the blanket away from her, looking to her left where she saw two seats. She was in a car.

Panic got stuck in her throat. How did she get in here? Looking at the door in front of her, she lunged forward, grabbing the handle and pushing it to the side. She didn't know how to open that door. As she looked through the dark window, her wide eyes met Stefan's and she hit the window a few times to help her.

Stefan rushed to the door and opened it, revealing a dishevelled sister who almost fell right into his arms. She wrapped her hands around him as her quick breaths were slowly slowing down. Damon stepped out of the gas station and ran to them, relief rushing through his heart that their sister woke up.

Pulling away from the hug, Ophelia slowly stepped out of the car, noting that she was dressed in a different dress with a cardigan on top of it. The chill air of the evening seemed to strike her, making her hug herself as she tried to just convince herself that she was alive. Her throat was aching, her head was dizzy, and the few lights were buzzing loudly, making her wince.

Stefan opened the trunk of the car, taking out a bottle of water. Taking the cap off, he handed it to Ophelia, who drank the entire bottle in a few seconds. Feeling a bit more refreshed, she pushed herself back against the car and closed her eyes.

Everything seemed so loud and yet so quiet. It felt so cold, making her hair stand up one by one. It felt so spooky as the darkness of the night was slowly surrounding her. It felt odd to be alive and breathing, knowing that this was the second time she had died.

"What's going on?" She finally spoke as she opened her eyes, looking at her brothers.

"We're taking you away from Mystic Falls," Damon said, waiting for her reaction.

Looking around, she hugged herself tighter. "Where's Klaus?"

"We're taking you away from him," Stefan specified the reason for their departure.

Her brown eyes seemed to be struck with pain as her eyebrows gently furrowed, tilting her head in disapproval. "Why?" She whispered.

"We couldn't just give you to him," Damon explained.

Tears filled her eyes as she gently shook her head, trying to process what had just happened. "Klaus promised me to let me go as soon as he will get new hybrids. Why did you do this?" The pain in her voice was clear. It wasn't the pain that they took her away, it was because they didn't trust her enough to make her own decisions. No one ever let her make any decisions.

"Let you go when?" Damon shook his head. "In a year? In ten, maybe? And how do we know he won't just kill you when he got what he wants? If you hold the power that he has wanted for all his life, doesn't that make you the most dangerous person to him?"

The pain was quickly put down by anger in her eyes. "What gives you the right not to tell me this?!" Her voice raised. "Why did you not tell me about this? Why did you let me think I was making some sort of decision? Some sort of decision that was about my life?"

"We couldn't let him take you away from us," Stefan answered, his eyes filled with sorrow as he was looking at her anger.

"God!" She closed her eyes, covering her face with her palms as she shook her head. "Do you know why I made that promise to him?" She looked at them again. "Because he threatened me to kill you. He threatened that if you two would do anything, he would kill you. And I foolishly believed you two were respecting my choice."

Ophelia felt betrayed by her brothers. All those talks about modern times, about the ability of a woman to say no. About the abilities for them to study, to work, to have or not have a family. To make choices that weren't related to a man. For a woman, who had no rights, and no meaning in the family that seemed unbelievable. But she soon learned to cherish her hard-earned choice for the sake of her family. And they disrespected that. They reminded her of the way it always was.

"We'll figure it all out. Now, we will get as far from Mystic Falls as possible and then we'll see what we can do with Klaus," Stefan gently extended his hands in a defensive manner.

Taking a moment to breathe and to realise what was actually happening, she kept on thinking. It meant that the ritual succeeded and that Klaus was able to become a real hybrid. But she felt the same. Nothing felt special. Only her skin was smooth, without any burns and inflammation. They didn't even know if the ritual gave her the needed power and ran. What if she was useless and they put an unnecessary target on her back?

What will happen when Klaus finds them?

"What about the rest?" Ophelia asked. "How are you convinced he won't hurt them?"

"Elijah is on our side. He promised protection," Stefan explained.

Exhaling, her shoulders slumped, her perfect posture slipping away. Even Elijah didn't tell her this. And she thought he had some sort of respect for her.

"You did this not knowing if the ritual changed me," she mumbled, disapprovingly. "I feel as before. Nothing has changed."

"You were dead, Ophelia," Damon disagreed. "For two days you were dead. The ritual worked."

That still didn't make her feel better. She knew her brothers well. She knew how much she meant to them, but they didn't respect her as a person capable of making her own decisions. Always as her family's shadow. Just a woman.

"At fourteen Father sent me for two months to our distant relatives, do you remember that? He has not asked for my permission or explained why. I was excited to leave the house and go somewhere else. But he wanted me to get engaged to the son of the family. I only found out when I got there," she watched the way their expression dropped. "The engagement failed because he got incredibly ill and I was sent back home. When I got back, I realised that Father had not told you of his plans and he wanted me to leave quietly for you to know later..." She inhaled deeply. "After that, he made the decision to keep me around. To find me a husband. But I knew he would never allow me to leave again."

"Ophelia, we..." Stefan started.

"You did not know? You did not know anything about what had happened to me! Too focused on your freedom, on women! But I was always there because I wasn't allowed to leave!" Her eyes filled with tears. "Your decision today reminds me of Father. And I loathe him with all my heart." She spat out the words and got back to the car, closing the door.

The brothers shared a look. They were doing this for her safety, and they knew she would forgive them one day for this. But to be compared with Father? With such anger, they have never heard before. It was a horrible feeling to realise that they knew nothing about her. They only have seen the façade that she has put up for everyone. She was a woman of the nineteenth-century – silent, but furious.

They both got back into the car in silence, driving away from the gas station. The atmosphere in the car was killing the brothers with regret and with the pain they had caused her. But Ophelia didn't know Klaus properly and their connection which was visible even to them, was terrifying them. To be bound by the power to a monster? They had to do everything to protect her from him.

After they reached Jackson, they stopped in front of a hotel. "We gonna stop here overnight to sleep and to get you something to eat," Damon informed before the Salvatore family gathered their things and got inside.

Ophelia was raging quietly – it was the best thing she could do. She wasn't interested in the weird décor of the hotel or the weirdly giggly administrator who gave them a key to their room. She was silently following her brothers as they got to the room. She ignored the size of it, the size of the bed and the weird smell of chemicals.

Watching the way Damon called for food, she heard how Stefan closed the curtains and she moved to the bathroom to wash her face.

She looked at the mirror to see that she looked better. Her skin seemed smoother and almost as if made from marble. Her brown eyes were almost dark in the dim light of the bathroom, making them appear even angrier. As soon as she washed her face, she left the bathroom to lie down on the bed.

All three of them were going to share a room for safety reasons. The Salvatore brothers didn't really need sleep, but they were going to keep a watch switching turns throughout the night. They wanted to give Ophelia a chance to rest peacefully before getting back on the road.

It felt as if they were watching her with caution. They watched the way she ate the dinner once it came. She silently ate the steak and the potatoes with the salad. She drank the tea without any sugar. She tried a small bite of the cake, but she quickly placed the fork down – she didn't like the sweetness of cakes. Especially in modern times. Then she went to the bathroom and lastly, to bed. She was moving quietly, not offering them any eye contact, her face unmoving as if there was nothing in her head.

The room wasn't big, so as Ophelia was lying on the bed, Damon was sitting on the couch beside it, looking at the TV on the lowest volume. Stefan was sitting at the other end of the bed, not knowing what to do now.

As soon as the brothers heard that she fell asleep, Stefan sighed, covering his face. "She's right. We should've given her the opportunity to decide."

Damon snapped his head at his brother. "I don't remember the last time people are asking permission to save someone's life," he whispered.

"I'm not regretting the fact that we're doing this," Stefan angrily mumbled. "But we gave her no choice."

"Klaus gave her no choice," Damon disagreed. "We're her brothers, we know better."

"Do we?" Stefan's shoulders slumped. "Do we know anything about her?"

Damon sat silent for a moment. No, they didn't know a lot about her. They didn't know her hobbies. They didn't know which colour was her favourite. "If Klaus would've taken her, I don't think we would have another opportunity to get to know her."

"She won't forgive us easily."

"Don't you think I know that?" Damon snapped, watching the way Ophelia's shoulder slightly twitched, making him shut his mouth and gather himself before he woke her up. "I blame myself every day for what has happened to her and that we weren't able to save her," he silently said. "Don't you think it's weird how she woke up around the time when Klaus got back? Don't you see that their connection is fucking creepy? What do they mean she has a power of creation?"

Stefan's face twisted in disgust. "You don't mean..."

"I know you thought about it too."

Both brothers felt sick to the stomach even if the possibility that she actually needed to produce a hybrid was low. They didn't really understand how a hybrid was made since a vampire couldn't be anything else. They were worrying a lot, and each scenario didn't make them feel even better. It seemed like the possibilities varied from her having to kill someone or make someone.

"Either way," Damon said, "he won't be getting her."

Such a Salvatore thing to do to plan without telling anyone the truth. And prepare to see a lot of rage. Her silent rage will soon turn into a proper one.

quick explanation: damon has thought that Ophelia might need to give BIRTH to a hybrid, which is not true, but when you are scared and don't know anything, fear can make you think horrible things

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