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"Bring me to life. I've been living a lie. There's nothing left inside."

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AFTER CHRISTINA'S big revelation, the house seemed to quiet down as Logan and I put her to bed. She was completely overwhelmed, and the best thing I could think of was to let her sleep and digest it all. Since she doesn't have a daylight ring, I put her in my room with all the windows and curtains closed, preventing her from burned alive the next morning.

I slept on the couch after putting Theo to bed while Logan slept in the guest room, and Joel in Theo's tiny twin bed. It was quite the adorable sight really, as Theo was the one who requested to sleep with his uncle.

Sleeping on the couch was uncomfortable to say the least, but thankfully I was tired enough to sleep the whole night through. A light shake of my arm and a gentle pressure on my shoulder jolts me awake as my eyes spring open, landing on Theo's blue ones. I immediately sit myself up, thinking something is wrong when I notice it's morning.

"Theo? What's wrong?" I ask him, worried that he'd had another nightmare. Between the two of us, nightmares weren't uncommon.

"Nofing." He says, still struggling to pronounce his words right.

"Where's Uncle Joel?" I ask him, rubbing my tired eyes.

"He still sleeping." Theo says, stomping his way into the kitchen. He runs straight for the cupboards, looking for his favourite bowl, expecting me to pour him cereal. It's what we do every morning before preschool, however today I've decided to take a day off.

"Theo," I say, entering the kitchen. "I think today we're all just going to stay home. Are you okay with that?" I ask him, leaning against the kitchen counter as he stands on his tippy toes to close the fridge.

"Yup," he replies immediately, causing me to chuckle. "But Mommy, what for breakfast?" 

"Hmm. What about pancakes?" I suggest, and immediately his face lights up in excitement. He laughs and nods his head, making me laugh more. "Alright, help me get set up," I say, pointing to the cupboard with all the bowls in it while I grab the eggs, instant pancake mix and water.

As I get a pan out and turn the stove on, Theo grabs the pancake mix using his stool, before placing the stool beside me to help me cook. Every now and then whenever I actually cook a meal instead of ordering in, Theo helps me.

"Mix," I say, as he passes me the box. "Water," I say after pouring the mix, as he passes me the jug of water. "And eggs." 

I let him stir it and help him spoon the batter into the hot pan, letting him watch as the dough begins to form bubbles. "Mommy, fhink fhey ready," he says, as he passes me the spatula. I gladly take it from him and check the pan, not surprised to find they are indeed ready. If anyone knows how to cook pancakes, it's Theo.

I flip them and let them cook for a few more minutes before sliding them onto a plate. "Here you go buddy," I say, passing the plate to him as he gets off his stool.

"Fhank you." He smiles, as he takes his plate the the table.

I watch with a smile as he pulls out a chair and dives into his pancakes, not bothering with a fork or knife as he eats with his fingers. Shaking my head I grab the syrup and place it in front of him, his eyes opening wide as he realizes he forgot the most important part. He takes the syrup bottle in two hands and tips it upside down, letting syrup splatter all over his plate, almost sending half the bottle of syrup onto his pancakes.

"Oops," he squeals with a laugh, and because of his laugh I of course end up laughing too. Together we find ourselves laughing hysterically bright and early in the morning, all over spilled syrup. Apparently our laughs carry throughout the house too loud, as Joel enters the kitchen with a smile on his face, admiring the scene in front of us.

"What's going on here?" he asks.

Theo and I exchange looks before laughing again. "Nofing!" Theo exclaims with a giggle.

Joel smirks and snags a piece of pancake drenched in syrup. "Nothing, huh?" he questions whilst eating the pancake. "Theo, I think you are up to something," Joel teases.

"No!" Theo giggles. "You up to something!" he shouts, as he throws a piece of pancake at Joel. I widen my eyes in surprise but let out a laugh as the pancake lands on Joel's cheek, the syrup sticking to his face.

"Alright, alright," I say, ruffing up Theo's hair. "Eat your pancakes now buddy," I tell him, walking past Joel. As I pass him I take the pancake from his cheek and plop it into my mouth, making Joel scowl.

"He meant to give that to me," Joel says as I wash the dishes.

I laugh just as Logan walks in, dark circles under his eyes and his hair all ruffled. "Not going into work either huh?" I joke, trying to lighten the mood. However, Logan only cracks a small smile, clearly still saddened by Christina. Either way he was going to be sad, as her choices were become a vampire or die.

"How is she?" I ask in a more serious tone.

He shrugs and takes a seat at the kitchen table. "I don-"

Logan is suddenly cut off as a horrific scream sounds from upstairs, sounding even louder in my vampire ears. Logan goes to get off and take up the stairs, but I beat him to it with my vampire speed, wasting no time to barge into my room, seeing Christina curled up in the corner where it's dark. The curtains are wide open allowing the bright morning sunlight to shine through, burning her skin.

I rush to the windows and close the curtains, blocking out any sunlight as Logan goes to her side. "What happened?" I question, gasping.

"I just went to open the curtains when suddenly skin starting burning!" she explains in a panic. "Why did that happen!!"

I take in a breath and cross my arms across my chest. "Christina, consider this your vampire training day," I say, prepared to spend a full day teaching a newbie the life of a vampire, knowing that all the information I know from this date, I learned from the one and only James.

∆ ∆ ∆

Explaining every fine detail and answering the questions Christina was eager to ask was a lot harder than I thought it would be. As we sit here in the late afternoon, I find myself baffled of how James had managed to explain every aspect to me about being a new vampire in a short matter of a day. Then again, I had a whole week with him alone to contain and practice my new abilities, which is exactly what Christina is going to need.

"To sum everything up, I am now super athletic, have pure skin that will never age, heal on my own, can manipulate other people, have a switch to become a bitch, but have to avoid vervain and drink blood to survive?" Christina asks in all one breath.

I look at her in surprise and shuffle down a laugh. "Yup, pretty much!" I say with a smile. Surprisingly Christina is taking this a lot better than I thought she would, considering she never wanted to become a vampire in the first place.

"Is there anything else I should know about?" she questions, appearing to be bored.

"Vampire wise you're pretty good, and you seem to understand everything. You'll just need time to adjust and practice controlling yourself in public," I say. "Logan on the other hand can explain everything else about the supernatural," I say, knowing there's a whole world she doesn't know about. 

Frankly I feel if Logan tells her, they won't feel so disconnected. As of right now, there's a great wave of awkwardness floating between them and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's the fact that she's still adjusting, or maybe it's Logan who needs to adjust to his best friend becoming a vampire. He is a werewolf after all.

"Why? Where are you going?" she asks suddenly, like she's terrified if I leave; like she's terrified of herself.

"I'm going to check on our little prisoner in the basement," I say in the least creepiest way possible. Frankly, I don't think there will ever be anything not creepy about keeping a prisoner in my basement.

Nodding in assurance, I send Logan and Christina a quick smile before heading downstairs to the basement where Joel is, sitting across from an unconscious Tyler Lockwood who still hasn't woken up yet.

"Hey," I say, shaking Joel's shoulder lightly, waking him up from his sleep.

His eyes flutter open and he sits up, giving me a small smile. "Theo isn't here is he?" Joel asks, concerned that when Tyler wakes up he may not be Tyler again.

"He's at our neighbours house, playing with his friend," I reply, walking over to Tyler. I give him a light nudge with my foot, hoping to wake him up but he doesn't move. Frowning, I kick him again harder this time, finally getting him to wake.

Tyler jumps awake, staring frantically like he did last time he woke up. Either this is really Tyler, of Julian is a really good actor. "Am I talking to Tyler or Julian?" I ask forcefully.

"Blair?" he gasps, going out to touch me when suddenly he sees the chains that bound him to the wall. "What the hell is this?" 

"Jesus, your mood changes faster than a girl on her period. Must be a werewolf thing. Logan gets that way too," I snicker, turning to Joel who lets out a laugh.

"Who is Julian? This isn't funny Blair!" he exclaims.

"Hmmm," I say, leaning down to his level, looking him right in the eyes. "If I am speaking to Tyler, then he will know the answer to this question," I say. "The first time we met was where, and under what circumstances?" I question him. The first time we met wasn't a very pleasant day as Jules and Mason were in town.

"Jules had taken you and Caroline captive in her RV, and Stefan brought me along to make a deal," Tyler answers monotone like, as he replays the scene in his mind.

"Bingo!" I say, clapping my hands together.

"Now will you please tell me what this is about?" he asks desperately, tugging against the chains. "And would you please release me?" 

"Sorry mate, no can do. There's a Traveller trapped inside of you, and we can't tell when he'll show up," Joel explains, catching Tyler up to date.

Tyler scoffs and rolls his eyes, not sounding as surprised as I thought he'd be. "Damn it. You're telling me I've got a goddamn Traveller passengered in me right now?" he questions in great aggravation.

"Wait, you've heard of them?" I ask, confused as to how he's not more surprised.

"Yes I've heard of them. They've taken over Mystic Falls. Matt even had one in him, as did Sheriff Forbes. The only way to get rid of one is to stab them with a special knife," Tyler explains. 

His words send my mind into a haze as I try and visualize how bad things are at home. Even though Mystic Falls is several hours away, the same problem seems to affect me as the Travellers are an issue here too. I am starting to believe that Salvatore blood is cursed, making trouble and chaos enviable wherever we go.

"Well where do we find this knife?" I ask him, feeling more like a detective interrogating the suspect. Not that I would ever admit it, I feel happy to be doing something so familiar. Now all we need is one of Damon's snide comments about me fulfilling my fantasy job of a detective.

Tyler suddenly uses his chained hands to feel around his pockets, looking for something as a scowl forms across his face. "I had it on me, but whenever this dick-face passengered inside me, he must've found it." He sighs.

"Meaning?" Joel asks.

"It could be anywhere," Tyler confirms, closing his eyes in annoyance. "But," he adds. "It would most likely be in Mystic Falls. That's where the Travellers are set up, and last time I heard they were prepared to do some spell undoing all witch magic ever created." 

At the mention of witch magic, my body stiffens as I realize that directly threatens the ones around me. People like Christina, Joel, Elijah and even Klaus.

"What are we going to do? We have to do something," I say, speaking aloud. I know what we should do, but deep down doing the most logical thing is the last thing I want to do.

"We have to go back to Mystic Falls," Joel states, making my heart drop to an unsettling rhythm.

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[completed & edited: 09/22/2021]