Edited

Qetsiyah had been right- her humanity was very well tailored.

Susannah had put a great deal of work into perfecting herself; as a child, she had sketched an image of who she wanted to be and, with clay and dust and blood, she made it reality. There had been other hands to help her sculpture take form- hands of soft flesh and brutal intent- but the work had been largely hers. She was proud of her humanity the way a farmer might be proud of a prize winning vegetable. She had raised it from seed after all, watered it carefully, let it bloom when the time arrived. Her person suit was her crowned achievement, a symbol of her mastery over the common man. A symbol of power.

But once she had been released she had chosen to forgo it in favor of something much more primal.

It was the beast who owned her tonight, the beast with its fierceness, with its sharp teeth, with its thirst.

"You must accept who you are, my darling creation." Her mother, Qetsiyah, had said softly, even as her cold fingers bruised Susannah's thin arms. Human in that moment, though not always.

But those were old times.

Susannah shook her head as if she could physically dislodge the sound of her mother's voice from her head. Her time in this mindset fleeting, she really should enjoy it instead of dwelling on the nostalgia of childhood- and tonight, she would allow herself freedom.

The beast possessed her; taking the bits that were human and smothering them, snuffing out the fire of humanity until it was a dimly lit ember and replaced it with brute animal strength and the need to eat and kill.

Standing in the shadows, pushing her way through bushes and shrubs. There were many creatures in this forest, she could hear the scurrying of mice beneath the dirt, the crackling of branches where deer walked, and occasionally, the near silent glide of an owl. There were many scents too- the stink of a startled stunk, the earthy richness of the dirt, the decaying body of a dead deer. And another scent, too, the sweetest of them all.

Susannah lifted her nose to the air, pausing in her hike and inhaling greedily.

Human.

The beast inside screamed then, propelling her forward. Her humanity dismissed to her bloodlust, yanked around like a dog on a leash.

Desperately she tried to reason with the animal within, using logic where none existed, trying to force her body to halt. Her instincts and wits battled for a moment as the trees smudged into one big blur.

Her sprint had taken her to the edge of the forest. The trees thinned here, the foliage yawning to reveal a little valley illuminated by the lights of a little house. Susannah rocked backwards on the heels of her feet and took a moment to observe.

She knew that she had traveled far into the night- she wasn't at all familiar with her surroundings. The house was isolated, so much so that if she did not see the light and curl of smoke from the chimney, Susannah might've thought it was empty.

The scent of blood was strong here- one of the inhabitants had to be outside.

Scanning the landscape, Susannah snaked her tongue out to lick her lips.

A little silhouette was walking around the house. It's gait crooked, shaky; there was hesitation to every step, a peculiar stiffness. Easy prey.

Smoke blew out between his lips, the cigarette between his fingers short.

She watched attentively as the man disappeared around the corner of his house before reappearing on the other side. The same stiff gait, looping over and over. Curious and hungry, she stalked forward. The scent of sweat became nearly overwhelming as she began to close the last few meters between them. But even as she loomed closer he did not notice her presence. Too caught up in what he was doing to notice a predator.

Her stomach was furious, growling so harshly it sounded like an animal.

No.

Susannah wouldn't kill him.

There were plenty of deer in the forests, that would be more than enough to satisfy her hunger.

She would not succumb so easily to her beast.

"You made quite a mess of yourself."

Susannah raised her head, humming in agreement.

She was covered in blood, it matted the tips of her dark hair and holed its way into the small indentions of her necklace. Her hands stained red. Yet despite the bloody gruesome mess she was in, she still looked- ethereal. It was as if the blood complimented her, became a second skin.

They led her to the grandiose bathroom were a steaming bath with fragrant oils had been prepared. The tension that had been building in Susannah since her awakening slowly dwindled at the sight of the wisps of steam floating invitingly above the white soap bubbles.

Shaking off her clothes she submerged herself in the water, the heat of it raising the temperature of her skin.

They approached and immediately started to help clean her off, returning to the familiar pattern Susannah was once very much accustomed to.

Arabella, Lila, Lydia, and Kenia.

Her ladies.

It had been so long since she'd seen them, since she'd seen anything familiar. But here they where, cleaning her off and helping her stand again.

"Where are we?"

Kenia gently situated herself behind Susannah lifting her hands to her hair and beginning the long process of washing her waist length hair. "A land called Mystic Falls."

The water began to turn pink.

"The one who has awakened you resides here."

Bonnie Bennett.

A mere child of the age of five had done what thousands of witches couldn't even begin to accomplish. She had released Susannah from her entrapment, perhaps the young Bennett had felt a loneliness so profound that her dormant magic acted without any restraint and reached out to the call of blood or maybe there was no explanation and her magic simply did as it chose to do.

Regardless Susannah was thankful.

When she arrived on the porch of Sheila bennett, dressed in the clothes of her time, Sheila had first looked at her with awe before hesitantly bowing before her.

"Daughter of Qetsiyah and Silas," A soft sigh fell from the bowed witch's mouth, her voice sounding as though she couldn't believe of what she spoke. "We have waited a long, long time for you to arise."

"How long have I been trapped in rest."

Swells of power rolling off Susannah's tongue with every word spoken. Her voice clear and quiet, yet commanding.

"Far beyond a thousand years."

Something dark and corrupted filled her eyes, making the melted gold color turn to a deep burning bronze. "Stand," She commanded coolly before asking a question she knew the answer to. "Was it you who awakened me?"

Sheila stood holding her arms to her chest.

"No, every generation has tried to awaken you and all have failed…" Stepping back to open the door of her home, showing a young girl with green eyes and a bright crooked little smile. "Until now."

It hadn't taken long for her to understand the workings of the new world she had awoken in, even though at times she found everything within it exhausting. Letting her power seep from beneath her fingertips into the garden below her, bringing to life dozens of herbs and wildlife plants.

"You spend more time in this garden then what should be healthy."

In Sheila's hands rested a mug of strong black Jamaican coffee. A pinch of cinnamon giving the brew a pleasantly spicy taste.

A small smile teased her lips, as she hummed a little tune. "I understand nature better than all else."

Turning towards Shelia wearing badly scuffed Reeboks, blue jeans, a red and brown checkered tank top that clung to her skin, and a brown corduroy jacket. The jacket was one of her favorites, worn so often that the cords were threadbare in places, the cuffs were frayed, and the inner arm creases seemed as permanent as a river valley.

"Good morning, Susannah."

"Is it?" She asked somewhat sourly.

Sheila hobbled forward, the power bubbling from the garden soothing the tension from her muscles and making her feel light in her old age. The air whispering with psychic energy. A sensation that could only be felt by a particular nonhuman sect or by humans with highly developed senses.

"Want to talk about whatever has you upset?"

"No."

"It might help to talk about it," Sheila said.

And Shelia, with her sweetness and kindheartedness would never be able to truly see the situation she was in. She might understand on some level the difficulties Susannah faced, but it was all logic, rather than empathy, and while she could sympathize with Susannah's position, Shelia believed that she would find someone who would ground her. And once that happened all her problems would largely melt away.

Susannah knew Shelia didn't mean it to be insulting.

But when her isolation and bitterness were ripe it did feel that way.

"It wouldn't help."

"After all these years you still haven't aged."

Susannah Bennett was definitely not an ordinary girl.

Her hand tightened into a small fist, her caramel brown skin soaking in the light from the sun's rays making her skin look dewy. "A gift from my mother."

Now she walked the earth again as something else. Something new.

"Bonnie will soon begin to notice." Reaching for her and gripping their hands together. "She is twelve now."

Laughing she shook her head, her long dark natural curls swinging healthily behind her. "When I was twelve years of age I had already mastered control of all the elements. Why are you holding her back from her destiny, Sheila."

"Because her destiny will bring her pain, Susannah."

For someone who had lived with Sheila for years upon years, who was fearless and stubborn when needed to be and delicate in other times, Susannah Bennett was frustratingly, primly retricent when it came to making personal revelations.

And although Sheila knew a great many things about her, it seemed she knew nothing important about her.

"It is in our blood to feel pain." Picking the flower from the ground ignoring the digging of the thornes, Susannah reached it out to Sheila. "To deny our blood however only yields more pain."

There are currently fifty- seven living Bennett's in the United States. They are the cousins never brought to light, discarded, second and distant. And Susannah can feel them all, feel them as easily as she can feel herself.

One of them is probably going to die within the week: Leo Bennett. His problems, and joys, nights and noontimes- are close to ended.

There are others to worry about: Devon Bennett Lee, son of Annie, born prematurely nine days ago. He is small but he will live, he will grow taller and wider and learn to ride a bike. He will eventually control his asthma. He will eventually die. They will all eventually die.

Alissa Dion, daughter of Corina Bennett, She stands by her husband, watching him fight for his life. She is praying- not to anyone in particular- but her earnest praying, like none Susannah has known, is also punctuated with vague threats. Her eyes are like fire as she threatens God.

"I swear," She whispers. "I fucking swear, if you take him-" She puts a hand over her mouth and hot tears well in the corners of her eyes. Susannah in her unseen form, reaches down and places her hand on Alissa's forehead. She cannot save her husband, but she can save Alissa from nightmares, at least for tonight.

Julian- youngest son of David Bennett- is in love for the first time. He is exceptionally tall in a way that his father was not, and has more power in him then his father ever did.

Susannah sits with him in his room for a while, as Julian stares at candid pictures of Shonda on the screen of his tablet. In the video he captured she is all smiles. Julian's thoughts are rather innocent for a boy of nineteen, and Susannah is struck- she's always struck, it seems, these days- at their sincerity. Julian is imagining what their children would look like, with Shonda's thick curls and infectious grin, and his eyes. Susannah can picture them too, easily.

She visits all the infants, the Bennett children in their cribs and cradles. So she stands over them, using astral projection. There are nine children. She focuses on them for a week, following them to daycare and pre-school and to the homes of relatives and friends.

Susannah watches them laugh and clap and stuff toys in their mouths, and once pulls a small pair of fingers out of a light socket just in time. Susannah is far beyond caring what effect her actions have on the future, on what people call destiny: two thousand years ago she might have stood aside and let events play out, because of her surety in the grand design. There is still a design, she believes that firmly. Her faith is dented, not gone. She is simply willing to- as Shelia would say- fuck it all up if she feels like it. Muddy the waters. Color outside the lines.

She sits on a park bench in the small hours of the morning, watching the thin, high clouds pull apart slowly. And then in the moment before dawn there is a small sensation, a tug, barely even a ripple in her extended consciousness, but she knows. Fifty-six.

"Goodbye, Leo," She says, in the direction of the clouds. More will always come. The mantra: more will always come, and she'll be here.

The condition of the corpse was better than she had anticipated.

Wounds did not cover her body making her indistinguishable, no easy cause of death could clearly be identified. Except one thing was sure within her open eyes there was nothing behind them.

She could hear Bonnie screaming, yelling out words she couldn't even begin to process or understand nor would she be able to answer her. Her mouth was dry and open in shock, her jaw hanging loose.

When Susannah met her own eyes in the windows reflection from inside the kitchen, she had to look away from the terror, confusion, and primitive rage that she saw within them.

When the ambulance takes her away and Bonnie and Susannah are left in the house alone, tears falling freely from each others eyes.

"It's my fault."

"Bonnie-"

"I should have never begged her to help open the tomb." Her voice cracks as she places her hands on her face. "I should have listened to you and not opened it at all."

Susannah kicks out her legs in front of her, her eyes falling shut. "It's not your fault-"

"YES IT IS," Bonnie shouted, her loud voice causing the neighbors dog to shoot off into a frenzy of barks. "That's what is wrong with the world. That's exactly what's wrong. Nobody wants to be responsible for anything. Everybody wants to be and do anything they please, nobody wants to accept the consequences."

"You're right."

"These days if your life is screwed up, if you've failed your family and friends, it's never your fault. Your an alcoholic? Why maybe it's a genetic redisposition. A compulsive cheater, well maybe you never felt loved, maybe your parents never gave you all the cuddling you needed."

"Exactly," Susannah said.

"You just killed someone or abused your child? Why your not bad, no, you're not to blame! Your parents are to blame, your teachers are to blame, society is to blame, all of western culture is to blame, but not you, never you. How crass to suggest such a thing, how insensitive, how hopelessly old fashioned."

"You speak nothing but the truth," Susannah decided, a small bitter smile tugging at her lips.

"Fall in love with a vampire and drag your friends and family through hell to appease him and his psychopath brother? Oh it could never be her fault."

Her voice dies off in a tired whisper as she shakes with sobs. Everything inside of her pounding and burning.

"What I'm saying is," Bonnie finally speaks again her lips mouthing the words before she could process them. "Is that I don't want to be like that. When I'm responsible, I want to choke on my responsibility."

"I hear you."

"I am responsible for Grams's death."

"Whatever you say," Susannah said stroking her dark hair soothingly.

"If I had been smarter she still would be alive."

"Believe what you will," Letting her own tears fall to the floor.

"She's on my conscience."

"Okay."

Susannah rested her head next to Bonnie, snuggling the girl closer.

"I'm responsible."

"I'm sure you'll burn in hell for it."

Susannah felt Bonnie shake beside her. The laugh so sudden, that it quickly turned to more sobs.

Susannah lifted her arm to wrap around Bonnie more completely, the rough fabric of her jacket scratching her bare arm as the scent of herbs and flowers drifted to her nose. And so Susannah feeling Bonnie's pain so thoroughly did something she hadn't done in so long. She soothed over the emotional wound. Her magic flooded into Bonnie, lightly and unthreatening enough it didn't alert any of Bonnie's senses. And when the transferring was finished and Bonnie could finally breathe through her pain, Susannah was left ready to jump off the nearest bridge.

"It is not your fault that Grams is dead."

Sighing through her tears Bonnie raised her head. The inherent beauty that swelled in Susannah making her all the more resemble some kind of angel. She hadn't understood it when she was younger. The healthy glow of her light brown skin, and the delicate curve of her cheekbone, and her wide golden eyes made her stand out above all the rest.

Even now, with her long eyelashes clumped together by tears and her cheeks blotchy and red, she looked angelic. With freckles gathering to form a miniature constellation across her cheeks and nose, an inordiancy of features that created a celestial map.

"I don't know what to do anymore."

"Empaths cannot heal," Qetsiyah had once said. Her eyes dark, hooded. "But they can take another's pain and make it their own. And you want me to be happy, don't you? So do this for me, my darling creation."

"Shhh," Susannah hummed lightly, combing through her dark hair with the utmost gentleness. "I will get you through this."

Fifty-five.

The funeral had been a small somber affair.

Bonnie shielding her red rimmed eyes with large sunglasses while Susannah openly allowed tears to trail down her face. Their hands interlocked as they stared unmoving at the headstone lying in Sheila Bennett's place.

Susannah's ladies stood off to the sidelines, offering silent condolences.

"It's not fair."

"This world hardly is."

Falling to her knees before the tombstone, Susannah laid down a handful of roses at its base.

"Bonnie," The doppelganger spoke hesitantly, her lips trembling with some unknown emotion.

Lifting herself to her feet, Susannah fought the urge to throw something heavy at Elena's face in order to permanently disfigure it. The memories of the original doppelganger were far too angry to truly separate from the face, leaving Susannah with a burning hatred every time Elena came into sight.

Pushing down the anger that lathered her throat, Susannah stepped towards her. "Perhaps now isn't the time, Elena."

"But-"

"Elena, I will not repeat myself."

The doppelganger cowered from the sudden fire in Susannah's voice. "I just wanted to say I know you can get through this."

Immediately bowing her head in an unconscious act of submission and turning and leaving Bonnie with Susannah.

And if there was one thing Susannah wished Elena never would have said, that would be it. Susannah doubted Elena realized she just diminished Bonnie's pain, that her words weren't at all helpful...because of course Bonnie could get through it, she was strong and beautiful and effortless, but despite all that Bonnie needed to know it would be okay if she couldn't get through it. That she would still be loved if she didn't have the heart to let go.

Perhaps when the wound was somewhat covered such words would be welcomed, cherished even, but not now.

"Thank you," Bonnie said interlocking her arm with Susannah's. "I'm not ready to face her."

"Caroline's a vampire."

"I know."

Throwing a vase watching it shatter to the ground. "How could this happen?"

Susannah watched with empty eyes, washing the dish in front of her with repetitive circles.

"It feels as though everything is falling apart."

Rinsing the plate off and putting it on the drying rack, Susannah faced Bonnie. Her golden eyes fierce with a fire she'd never seen before.

"You do know that whatever happens you will get through this, right?"

Bonnie shook her head feeling lost and reeling from a pain she didn't know she would suffer if encountered by this problem. "I don't know anything anymore."

Falling to her knees, looking heavenward to avoid Bonnie's eyes.

"You do know there are worst things in this world."Tapping her hand against the floor, "She could be gone."

Kenia braided her hair with the utmost gentleness, looping Susannah's hair around itself into a beautiful decoration.

She had always had a talent for hair, even with herself. For Kenia's light brown hair was never thrown into a messy bun.

Sometimes it surprised Susannah that they had all chosen to stay by her side. She had given them the option, the opening they needed to leave. They hadn't been trapped in a coffin not the way Susannah was. They had a life all those years, a life without Susannah, and yet they stayed.

Kenia remaining the closest.

She was beautiful, high delicate cheek bones, small nose, pale skin, with deep blue eyes. She could have been royalty herself or perhaps a tall model who graced a cover of some foreign magazine.

But she had an infinite number of childhoods; her parents were happy, fighting, abusive or dead. Her father had been a high born noble, a thief, a murderer or unemployed. Her mother an adulterer, a governess, an at home care taker or a loose minded woman. She was an only child, brought up in a foster home or heir to a fortune.

It was never the same story.

And maybe that's why Kenia stuck so close. Because Susannah was the only one who knew the truth. Who could see behind the lies and still let her spin her webs for everyone else.

"I'm all done," Kenia said lightly, her voice holding a slight rasp to it.

Susannah stood dragging her feet until she was in front of the mirror, taking in how she looked.

It was not an idle or narcissistic endeavor, but one to remind her of what others would see.

The dress wasn't like much else she owned but had been tailored to her figure quite precisely. The tailor had worked wonders to make her look slightly taller, sophisticated, and refined. The dark blue of the dress seemed to shimmer black as she moved, her hair braided into a crown.

"Thank you, Kenia."

Stepping away she fought the shaking in her hands.

Susannah had felt the other Bennett the second she entered town, her powers and blood calling to Susannah like some ancient dance or summoning ritual.

"You are-" Lucy backed up into the wall behind her, her lips parting as she rushed in breath after breath of cold air.

"I am glad you know who I am Lucy," Susannah said gently. Walking over to the girl and bringing her hand up to soothe over the side of her face. She nearly flinched when she felt fear coiling beneath her skin.

"How-"

"It doesn't matter." Bringing her hand beneath Lucy's chin forcing her dark brown eyes away from hers. "You will relinquish the spell you have cast, am I understood."

Lucy swallowed her hand coming to ghost over where Susannah touched her. "I can't-"

"You can and you will." Closing her eyes and reopening them with a sigh, Susannah smiled coldly. "Now if you will."

Lucy immediately relinquished her magical grip on the spell, feeling the new power take its place.

The warm ties letting her know another Bennett was here. "Who else is here?"

"Bonnie Bennett."

"A family reunion then?" Lucy asked with a sigh.

"So it seems."

With one last look, Susannah took off outside, already missing the comforting air that nature provided. Tapping her foot, the exposure that the dress offered of her skin making her feel naked.

"Susannah," The breathy voice of the latest doppelganger came from behind her.

She opened her mouth to say something when Susannah felt something rough slam into the back of her head. Falling to the ground, she could hear the pleas of the doppelganger as she was lifted into the air and dragged further into unconsciousness.