[ROSE]

The best way out is always through.

JULIETTE GASPED AS HER EYES WIDEN in shock and disbelief. She could not believe what she was hearing, no, it was just a coincidence. The man she dreams about, who also happens to be named Elijah, and this man who's on his way for Juliette and her younger sister, are not the same.

They couldn't be.

Elena elbows her sister, furrowing her brows in confusion at her. Juliette ignored her sister's confused looks and stood up from the couch. She edged closer to the stairs, straining to hear the conversation between their captors.

"Wonderful, and what?"

The Gilbert sisters quietly walk up the stand, careful not to make any noise so the vampires won't hear. "So that's it, Trevor. He either got it or he didn't. We just have to wait."

"Look, it's not too late. We can leave it here. We don't have to go through with this." Trevor said, fear lingering in his voice as he spoke, trying to convince his friend to run.

"I'm sick of running!" The woman replied, exasperated, as she turned to look at the other vampire. "Yeah? Well, running keeps us from dying." Trevor countered.

Rose took a deep breath, calming herself down as she answered her friend, "Elijah's old school. If he accepts our deal, we're free."

Juliette furrowed her brows as she and Elena crept closer to the room where the vampires were speaking. Her mind was racing. The man coming for them was named Elijah—the same name as the mysterious figure from her dreams. It had to be a coincidence. It just had to be.

Juliette shook her head, trying to dismiss the ridiculous thought. Elijah was a common name. It had to be a coincidence. But the way it sent shivers down her spine made her question everything.

And also, Elijah was just a figment of her imagination, merely a distraction from the chaos of life. Nothing more.

He had started appearing in her dreams a few weeks after her parents's deaths; weirdly, he was the only one who comforted her when all the attention was turned on her two other siblings. Elijah was always there for her, staying in her dreams until she next woke up and she would have to leave him, and the numbness and pain all came rushing back to her.

But the moment she gets to lay her head on her pillow and close her eyes, she feels at peace. And Elijah contributed to that, his presence, in her dreams, always made her feel better, ultimately helping her heal from the trauma of her parent's death.

But this guy who was on his way for Elena and Juliette wasn't the same. The Elijah Juliette knew wouldn't do that.

Suddenly, Elena walked too fast and stepped on a creaky floorboard. Juliette's heart sank. She glared at her sister, fighting the urge to scream in frustration. Elena's wide-eyed panic mirrored her own rising fear as the two vampires' heads snapped towards their way.

"You two! There's nothing around here for miles. If you think you're getting out of this house, you're tragically wrong. Understand?" The short-haired woman spat, moving closer to Juliette and Elena, who now had a frightened look on her face.

Juliette sighed and rolled her eyes at the woman, thinking that she was being a tad bit dramatic. "Who's Elijah?" She asked in a bored manner, taking a step closer to the vampire, who raised her brow at the girl's confidence.

Rose took a step closer as well, inches away from Juliette's face, as she uttered sharply, "He's your worst nightmare." This caused Juliette to raise her brow as the woman carried on, "And if I were you, I would take your pathetic sister and go back into the other room before I kill you myself."

Juliette chuckled slightly as she stepped away from Rose, rolling her eyes at the empty threat. "Well, if you kill us, I don't think Elijah would be too happy about coming out here to find us dead, do you?"

Rose's eyes narrowed as Trevor chuckled behind her, covering it up with a cough when his very angry friend looked back at him. "I mean, you wouldn't want to risk your chance at freedom, would you?"

Before Rose could say anything else, Juliette giggled as she smiled at the vampires before grabbing Elena's hand and dragging her out of the room, very pleased with herself as she sat on the couch, deeply sighing.

"What are you doing?!"

"Sitting on the couch?"

Elena scoffed as she threw her hands in the air, laughing in disbelief, before looking back at her sister, "You know what I mean! Why are you trying to get us killed?"

Juliette gave Elena an exasperated look as she twirled her blonde hair in between her fingers. "Look, I'm bored, and playing with Rose is very entertaining, and besides, she's not going to kill us; we're too valuable to her."

"How do you know that for definite?"

"Well, we both eavesdropped on the same conversation, right?" The blonde raised her brow as Elena confusedly nodded. "What I got from it was that Rose and Trevor owe this Elijah guy something, aka us, so they need us alive. We're their ticket to freedom, so they can't kill us."

Elena looked like she understood as she crossed her arms over her chest, sending her older sister a pointed look, "Well, please, for the love of God, can you not test their patience? I want to get out of here alive. Thank you very much."

"Whatever you want, Elena."

✧✧✧✧

AFTER A WHILE ELENA AND JULIETTE had made their way back into the room where Rose was while she looked through a pile of books in front of her on a table.

"Why are we here?" Elena asked for the thousandth time, and Juliette rolled her eyes as she leaned up against the door frame, bored out of her mind as she listened to her sister's conversation.

"You keep asking me these questions like I'm going to answer them."

"Why won't you?"

Juliette sighed as she glanced upward in irritation. Her sister never knew when to stop talking, she was a curious girl who needed answers for absolutely everything, but sometimes there's a time and a place, and she needed to learn that.

"That's another one."

Elena scoffed in exasperation. "You got me, okay? It's not like I can go anywhere. The least you can do is tell me what you want from me."

"Us." Juliette butted in, correcting her sister, as she suddenly seemed to have forgotten that she wasn't the only one who had just been kidnapped.

"Us." Elena repeated as she glanced her sister's way before looking back at Rose, "What do you want from us?"

Rose looked between Juliette and Elena, saying, "I personally want nothing; I'm just a delivery service." She picked up a big piece of wood and placed it over the window, hiding the sun that threatened to burn the vampire. She didn't have a daylight ring, Juliette noted.

"Delivery to who? Elijah?" Elena followed Rose with her eyes, wanting more information. "Two points to the eavesdropper," Rose mumbled.

"I mean, can you blame us? You weren't very particularly secretive about it." Juliette added, earning a stern look from Rose before the blonde raised her hand in fake defeat.

"Who is he? Is he a vampire?"

Elena, please stop asking so many questions for once in your life.

Rose sighed in defeat as she fully turned to face Elena, "He's one of the vampires, the Originals." Juliette furrowed her brows as she looked up from her manicured nails.

"What, so he's like a vampire celebrity?" She questioned.

Rose looked her way and nodded, "You could say that." She mumbled as she and Juliette shared a chuckle. The blonde couldn't believe that the supernatural world had vampires that were so important that everyone knew their names.

Juliette found it hysterical that this vampire was treated like royalty, How important could this person really be that Rose and Trevor are withering in fear, awaiting his arrival?

"What do you mean the originals?"

"Jesus Elena, let's use our brains here. Do you think Rose could maybe mean that he is one of the first of the vampire kind?" Juliette replied sarcastically, growing so irritated with Elena's constant questions that she easily figured out if she would just think about them.

The brunette glared as Rose chuckled and pointed her finger at Juliette. "I like her. Haven't the Salvatores been teaching you your vampire history?"

Elena ignored Juliette as she agreed with Rose's statement, "So you know Stefan and Damon?" She asked, disregarding the question entirely.

"I know of them," Rose informed, shaking her head. "A hundred years ago, a friend of mine tried to set me up with Stefan. She said he was one of the good ones." A small smirk played on her lips. "I guess I'm more of a sucker for the bad boys, though I digress."

"Good, because Stefan is such a bore," Juliette mumbled, pulling a face as she changed the subject away from her sister's boyfriend, whom Juliette liked but he sometimes needed to get a better personality. "Who are the originals?"

"Trevor and I have been running for 500 years. We're tired; we want it over. We're using you two to negotiate ourselves out of an old mess."

"But why us?"

"Yeah, because I promise you we aren't that interesting."

The vampire ignored Juliette's comment as she pointed at Elena, "Because you're a Petrova Doppelgänger." then pointed at Juliette, "And you—I don't know why you're important, but you are very valuable to Elijah. You're both the key to breaking the curse."

Juliette stopped leaning against the wall and stood up straight. A confused expression crossed her face as she took in what Rose said. You are very valuable to Elijah, but why?

She didn't even know who this person was; how could she be so valuable to him already?

Elena was the doppelgänger; she was usually the one people wanted, but what could I possibly have to make be valuable to an original vampire?

"The curse? The sun and moon curse?"

"Oh, you do know your history." She raised a brow.

"What do you mean I'm the key?" Elena questioned, "The moonstone is what breaks the curse."

"You aren't the only key; your sister is needed as well. She is the most important part." Rose informed the Gilbert sisters, who both were equally confused.

Again, Juliette couldn't understand why she needed to break the curse. She had nothing special about her; it was all Elena who had all the attention on her because she was the Doppelgänger.

"But the moonstone is what binds the curse," Rose spoke as Juliette moved over to stand next to Elena. "And the sacrifice is what breaks it?" Juliette inferred, finally understanding this whole thing.

The vampire smirked as she looked over to the blonde, nodding her head as she said, "I can tell you're the smart one out of you two."

Juliette raised an eyebrow, a smirk dancing on her lips as she looked over at Elena, who did not look impressed with the comment. "I like to think so." She replied, her voice steady.

Elena, still tense, glanced between the vampire and her sister. "The sacrifice?" She began again with the questions, trying her hardest to not let Rose's comment get to her.

Juliette knew it did. Despite her being 4 years older than Elena, Juliette knew that Elena liked to think she was in charge of everyone, deciding things for them; like when she took Jeremy's memory of Vicky's death from him.

Elena got jealous, and Juliette placed it in the fact that the attention had always been on her since the Salvatore brothers moved to town, so if the attention wasn't her, she would somehow find a way to make it on her.

Juliette found it quite annoying, but she never bothered calling her out on her behaviour; she simply did not have the effort to argue with her younger sister.

Rose looked away from the blonde, glaring at Elena as she answered yet another question. "The blood of the Doppelgänger. You're the doppelgänger. Which means, to break the curse, you're the one who has to die."

Silence enveloped both of the sisters, Juliette had stopped laughing; she didn't know that Elena had to die to break this curse, and she didn't know why.

"Wait what?"

✧✧✧✧

HEYY POOKIESS!!

Okay, so this will be my main book that I update for now on as CRESTFALLEN, is temporarily on hold, don't worry I plan on finishing this book soon, just not now!

I do not have a set day of the week that I will post for this book yet. I think if I set a day, It puts a lot of pressure on me to write all whilst juggling school so I think I'm just gonna publish when I feel like it!

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, it has taken me three days to write but that's okay!

See you in the next chapter!!!

Byeeee

24/05/24