.
Alive.
Mila finds herself running.
From what exactly, she doesn't know. What she does know is that there is someone or something right behind her. Though, each time she turns her head briefly to look, never slowing in pace, there's no one there. The paranoia, however, grows each time almost crippling her under its weight.
The walls, she realizes, aren't actually walls. They're tall dark green almost black masses of leaves and vines. The thought that she's running in a maze is suddenly upon her and out of breath she tiredly chuckles turning another corner. She is (yet again) reliving one of her memories.
Though she really doesn't want to stick around to relive the ending of this one.
And with that thought, like a wish, it's granted and she finds herself slowing to a confused stop in the middle of the maze. The TriWizard cup was never in the center of the maze but in an undisclosed dead-end, so it's with great surprise that Mila walks cautiously around the glowing blue TriWizard cup centered directly in the middle of the maze on a dais.
Suddenly, she feels heavy, like there's an overwhelming pressure upon her. Her limbs sag, weakened with every breath and with each blink it becomes harder and harder to keep her eyes open. She knows what's going to come next.
She hears silky laughter before she sees the ever omnipresent snake that haunts her dreams slither into her sight.
What do you want? She tries to scream but it comes out as a meek whisper.
It comes out tired. She's always tired when the snake makes its appearance.
The snake hisses another laugh and starts to slither around her. What I've always wanted…
It trails off as if it knows that she knows the answer. And on a particular level that she can't grasp at yet she thinks she knows the answer too, but it escapes her.
And what might that be? She asks curious but her tone is full of spite.
To be…
Her attention is drawn up towards the TriWizard cup the only source of light in the dark and dreary maze. Something behind the cup catches her eyes but she can't tell what it is, whatever it is though finishes the snakes' sentence in a malicious hiss.
Alive.
.
.
.
Mila has a bad feeling about today.
Well, it's not really a feeling as it's more of an expectation to be bombarded by everyone asking her: How in the hell is Mason still alive?
However, at the moment she has more pressing matters to attend to such as getting Teddy to daycare on time. Her injuries from the other day, although partly healed already with the help of magic, still hurt quite a lot. She was never good at healing spells. So being slightly handicapped made getting ready in the mornings a lot harder, especially when a certain little boy likes to spend a little too much time in the bathtub.
"Are we ready, Teddy?" Mila asks forcing a little bit of excitement into her voice purely for his benefit.
The toddler currently strapped into the car seat in the back screamed excitedly and from his head sprouted a plethora of different colored hair. At least he likes daycare, she thought getting out from the driver's seat, she couldn't even begin to imagine how bad it would be if he hated going to daycare. Looking around briefly for anyone that was paying too much attention to her she opened the door to the backseat and with a quick swish of her wand and mumbled words Teddy's excessively long vibrantly colored hair slowly shortened turning into messy black hair and his eyes into a neutral brown.
She made quick work of unstrapping him from the car seat and soon enough they were inside the daycare greeted as always by the head caretaker Amy.
"Good morning, Teddy." Was instantly cooed as soon as she set eyes on them. "Oh, and good morning, Mila."
"Morning." Mila replies shortly but not unkind. She never likes to stay long, just a quick drop off. Although she knew she could trust the daycare – all the other mothers had raved about it to her one afternoon – she couldn't help the feeling of dislike every time she stepped foot inside.
"Oh, what's wrong with your hand?" The worry dripping from Amy surprises Mila as she sets Teddy down on the floor who is off in an instant towards the toys. "Are you able to take care of Teddy with your hand? I could help you if you'd like no extra charge necessary of course."
"It was hurt as I was taking care of the… stray animals that were at my house. Quite vicious they were." Mila replies thoughtfully wondering why she was so worried about her and Teddy and why she would offer to help. "But, no, thank you, I can handle myself, hurt wrist or not."
"Okay then." She's cheery but the strain in her smile is easily detected. "We'll see you at four o'clock."
"On the dot." Mila manages a light smile before she's out the door.
That was highly suspicious. She had never once considered Amy to be a threat, what with her unrestrained sweet demeanor there was not even a single thought that Amy would be anything but what she presents. However, from experience she knew that looks are most certainly deceiving. She would have to look into her background thoroughly to ease her paranoia.
Distracted with her thoughts of how Amy was acting she didn't notice anyone standing by her car until she bumped into them. Gasping slightly at being caught off guard she quickly steps back aiming her wand at the person in front of her. It was instinctive now; the war had ingrained something into her that she doubts she could ever part with.
"Damon?" Mila addresses him annoyed and lowers her wand as he eyes it with trepidation. "Don't you know by now to not sneak up on me, lest you end up much worse than the last time you tried to torture me."
"What can I say?" Damon shrugs simply with a killer smile. "I like the thrill of near death experiences."
She rolls her eyes and asks: "What do you want?"
"I think you know exactly what I want, and that's an explanation." He tries to be intimidating as he steps closer to her and she admits that if it were anyone else but her they would find him quite intimidating. But Damon's a mere kitten compared to what she's faced.
"An explanation. For what exactly?" She feigns ignorance.
"Hmm, oh I don't know, how about how Mason still walks among the living? Be it on two legs or four."
"Mason? Ah, yes, I think I remember now." She smiles deviously but decides to be merciful and grant him the explanation he's looking for. "You see I didn't think it was necessary for him to die, I mean the Lockwood's already lost one member, why should they be subjected to even more pain by losing another? He was only protecting what he thinks is his and you and Stefan were very threatening. Besides, he saved Elena last night; I think he came handy after all, don't you?"
Damon glowers grabbing her upper arms and spinning them around before he's pinning her against her car. "And what about the part where I believed that this whole time I killed him and dumped his body by the Falls?"
"Ah, that…" Mila's lips quirk up lightly. "I didn't think it would actually work, you know. But to my utmost surprise it did. I didn't really have a backup plan so everything was riding on that, but, that doesn't matter anymore, I know it works now, quite efficiently too. No matter what you just can't remember, can you?"
"What works?" He pulled her closer only to slam her back on her car. Mila winces feeling the pain shoot up and down her back like lightning bolts. Her back was already black and blue from yesterday so this was only making it worse.
"I modified your memories." Mila grunts out through clenched teeth.
"You what?" Damon hisses angrily but Mila picks up the fear in it.
"Think of it as my version of compulsion. I merely made you believe that you ripped Mason's heart out as you said you were going to do and dump his body in the Falls, the details however are blurry. You know that that is what you did. You believe it to be true but you don't remember a single moment because I fabricated it all in your mind." Mila smiles threateningly. "It's not fun at all when you're on the receiving end, is it?"
Damon's breathing comes out short and furious and his eyes start to darken as the veins underneath appear slowly like snakes.
"Careful, Damon." Mila whispers her wand once again pointed at him. "Don't want to cause a scene now, do we?"
He sneers and pushes her forcefully against her car for good measure. Cautiously, without ever moving her wand away from him she gets into her car and starts to drive off to the Mystic Grill. She leaves Damon behind glaring at her as she winces stretching her back a little. At this rate it'll be broken by afternoon.
Seething silently Damon couldn't do anything but watch as she smugly drove off. He doesn't want to admit it but he doesn't have a choice, he has severely underestimated the witch if what she's says is true about modifying his memories. Compulsion is the only tool he's ever known to belong to the vampires and now some witch just waltz's in and performs it on him. He's starting to doubt everything he knows about witches.
His phone is pressed against his ear as he waits for Stefan to answer. Currently off gallivanting with Elena at her parents' lake house while he is left to clean up the messes and figure out what the hell is going on. Although he really shouldn't be jealous, after all, Elena is his brothers' girlfriend and he really shouldn't have feelings for her.
He was coldhearted Damon Salvatore.
Cruel and Selfish.
It was his image and it would remain so.
"What's going on?" Stefan says as he answers the phone.
"Well, I showered, shaved, had breakfast and was very relaxed up until the moment I had the most enlightening conversation with a certain foreign resident witch." Damon angrily kicks a fallen branch from a nearby tree watching as it goes flying four meters splintering as it hits another tree.
"What did she say?"
"Apparently she kept Mason alive because she thought that it wasn't necessary for him die – I disagree for obvious reasons number one being the poisonous werewolf bite – then she had the audacity to back her claim by saying he saved Elena. You could've saved Elena too." The aggravation in Damon's voice was easily perceived.
Stefan sighs running a hand through his hair as he clenches his eyes closed. "What about – what about the whole memory thing? You said Mason was dead every time I asked, gloated about it practically."
"That's the other thing." Damon clenches his jaw breathing slowly. "She modified my memories, Stefan. Like some kind of witchy compulsion."
"Is that even possible?" Stefan breathes out hand over his mouth in amazement.
"Obviously since she did it to me! I don't know about you, but I feel a little vulnerable now that I know she can do this. A little naked, you know?"
"So what do we do about her?"
"We can't do anything, Stefan. We had no idea she could do this who knows what else she's capable of. Besides I did hear one piece of good news though; Tyler Lockwood has finally run away from home last night."
"How do you know?"
"I heard it from Sheriff Forbes, who heard it from a very distraught Carol Lockwood who also says that he left with Mason, thus, ending our werewolf chapter, bringing us to…"
"… Killing Elijah." Stefan finishes.
"Bingo!"
"It's not going to be easy. He's crafty." From what Stefan knew of the vampire it was that he was all about strategy.
"Yeah, but I've got a crafty little dagger." The tension in Damon eases slightly knowing that for once he's a step ahead of the so called big bad original.
"He's an Original, Damon, we still don't know what that means exactly. Not to mention that the dagger came from John Gilbert who had, several times, attempted to kill us."
Damon rolls his eyes, his brother always the downer. "You have nothing to worry about, Stefan. Trust me, I'm gonna dot all my i's and cross all my t's. I don't want any surprises."
An impressed smile makes its way onto Stefan face. "Don't tell me you're actually trying to be careful for once?"
"Yes, Stefan, it's my nightmare come true, I've become you. How tragic for the both us. Got to run. I've got a hero-hair-do to do and a murder to plan. Busy day."
.
.
.
Bonnie frowns as she watches Luka storm out of Mystic Grill.
She felt terrible, not only was lying starting to become as easy as breathing air but before she shut the spirits out they did say that it wasn't good if she did wicked against another of her kind. Hell, her Grams even backed that one hundred percent and now Bonnie had no idea what would wait for her when she took the bracelet off.
"That's was close." Jeremy breathes as he looks at her concerned.
Smiling thin lipped she tries to shove any feelings that are trying to erupt down and nods her head mumbling a quite yeah.
"Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something -"
Before Jeremy has the chance to finish his sentence Bonnie's standing up. "Hold that thought, I just spotted Mila and I really need to talk to her. I'll see you later?"
Jeremy nods his head mumbling a quiet yeah which she barely catches as she's off in the direction of Mila's table. She feels kind of bad for brushing him off but she needed more time to think, she couldn't just date her best friends' younger brother without a thought, what would Elena think about that?
"Hey, I need to speak with you." Bonnie sits down and watches curiously as the open book in front of Mila is quickly slammed shut. She raises an eyebrow and her pointed look tells her to continue.
"Did you know that in order to kill Klaus he has to be at his weakest state which is after the ritual? Meaning after Elena's dead." Bonnie crosses her hands and stares at Mila with a piercing look that could rival her Grams.
Mila's expression crumbles slightly. "I'm sorry, Bonnie… but no I didn't know. Although I can't say I'm surprised."
"What do you mean?"
"Rituals are often complex, they might seem foolproof but there are always loopholes. They aren't necessarily the best kind of loopholes but loopholes nonetheless it makes sense that the only time Klaus is weakened is when the ritual is completed." Mila purses her lips before continuing. "And besides Elijah was very specific when he made the deal with Elena, if I can recall all the names you told me that were on her protection list, other than my own not being there, Elena's own name isn't on the list either."
"Are you saying that because of a loophole that my best friend is going to die?" Bonnie leans forward tears gathering in her eyes. She's been trying her hardest to not think about it, to not think about Elena dying after they've been trying to put in their best efforts to keep her alive.
"I'm sorry, Bonnie; trust me when I say that I know exactly how you feel I would do anything I could to prevent my friends from getting hurt let alone dying."
"If you know how I feel then you have to do something." Bonnie rests her hands flat on the table desperation leaking into her eyes. "You have to do something to help Elena."
"Bonnie… I – I can't. This spell, it isn't made by my kind. As much as I hate to admit it I'm utterly useless when it comes to this ritual." Mila's voice turns hushed as she looks around wearily.
"Then how are you helping me with my magic?" Bonnie is beyond frustrated with Mila. She just couldn't see why she wouldn't help them. There had to be something she could do.
"I've just been guiding you, Bonnie; everything you do is your own."
"How can you say this? How can you not help us? Are you on Elijah's side now since you have secret meetings with Dr. Jonas?" Bonnie raged quietly. She hadn't wanted to bring it up, she along with Jeremy and Caroline had all heard as Luka spilled the beans on Mila's secret meetings with the Doctor and at first she hadn't wanted to believe it but the look Mila was giving her right now changes everything.
"How do you know about that?"
Bonnie tries to swallow the thick knot in her throat but it just doesn't go down. She couldn't believe she ever trusted her.
"So it is true. There are spells that can make a tongue loose, Mila. You taught me that." Bonnie leans back against the chair and breathes heavily.
"Those types of spells were for dire need for pieces of information only, Bonnie, are you out of your mind? Dr. Jonas is an extremely skilled Warlock, when he finds out what you did to his son." Mila's mind is in a whirlwind she never thought that things would unravel this quickly.
"Why are you meeting up with Dr. Jonas?" Bonnie deflects a burning curiosity flaring up inside her.
Mila falters, she didn't want to say but she knew Bonnie had the right to know. "There are things that you don't understand. Things that you don't know about me -"
"Only because you don't tell me anything! I thought I was your friend."
"You are. It's just – my past is complicated and I don't think that I've completely recovered so I needed Dr. Jonas in order to figure some things out. I needed a wiccan witch to do what my kind can't."
There's a pregnant pause at the end of Mila's last statement and Bonnie is almost afraid to ask, but she does anyway.
"And what's that?"
"Get in touch with my inner magic." Mila herself sounds unsure. "I know how it sounds -"
"You mean not only lame but implausible as well?"
She continues as if Bonnie had never spoken. "But it works and I really need to figure out what the bloody hell is going on with me."
Bonnie comes to a realization and Mila watches as it unfolds on her face her expression turning to hurt. "Is that why you became friends with me in the first place? You needed a wiccan witch and I was the only one around at the time."
A noise of distress escapes Mila as she closes her eyes tightly before nodding yes.
"Admittedly, yeah. I befriended you in order to use you but you weren't nearly as strong as I needed you to be so I thought that if I started to help you cultivate your powers you would grow to be stronger. But it wasn't enough, so I turned to Dr. Jonas and you became more than a means to an end, Bonnie. You are my friend."
"I just don't know if I can believe you anymore. You've been lying to me this whole time." Bonnie seethes.
"Please, you don't know the whole story at least just hear me out, we can go to my house I can explain it better there." Mila pleads but Bonnie's already shaking her head no.
"I can't, not now. Not knowing what you're doing, how you were going to use me. I just… I can't." Bonnie stumbles on her words as Mila's confession replays over and over in her mind. She stands abruptly and moves to leave.
"Bonnie-" Her plea is lost as Bonnie moves leaving her sitting by herself at her table feeling every bit of misery she deserves to feel.
Mila sighs dejectedly carelessly shoving her book on wandless magic into her bag. Everything was going to the pits, at least in her opinion it was. Mason being alive has come into light which she was sure she was only going to get questioned on more by Damon once he gets over the fact that she modified his memories, and now Bonnie and whomever she told knows about her meeting with Dr. Jonas.
She just couldn't catch a break.
Someone calls out to her before she could make it to her car. Pausing, she turns around only to be greeted by Jenna with Elijah standing a little too close to her for Mila's liking when it concerns an Original vampire.
"Hey, what's up?" She tries to keep the suspicion out of her voice but fails when Elijah raises an amused eyebrow at her.
"Damon's having a dinner party tonight. You should come." One of the things she liked about Jenna was that she never beat around the bush; she always went straight to the point.
Cringing lightly at Damon's name she responds despondently. "Oh, I don't think I should, Damon and I had sort of a misunderstanding and, well, things aren't so good between us right now."
"All the more reason to go." Jenna grins happily and does her best impression of puppy eyes at her.
Mila laughs and turns her head to look away. She's a sucker for puppy dog eyes. "Ok, ok just stop looking at me like that."
"Great! I mean don't get me wrong I love Andie but sometimes she can be a little too much, especially when it comes to Damon." Jenna discloses before perking up remembering that she wasn't alone. "How rude of me, I almost forgot, Mila, have you met Elijah? He's here to write a historical paper on Mystic Falls and I volunteered to help him."
The way volunteered was stressed made Mila think it wasn't so much as Jenna volunteering as it was Mayor Lockwood pushing her to do it.
She was just about to respond yes when Elijah extends his arm forward as if they were meeting for the first time. "Elijah Smith."
"Mila, Mila Potter." She plays along not entirely sure where he was going with it but smiling tightly nonetheless as Jenna grins at them.
"Well, I should be going, Jenna, would you mind dropping me off?" Courteous as ever Elijah looks politely to Jenna for her answer. When she shakes her head no saying she'll drive him wherever he wants to go he smiles kindly at her before turning back to Mila. "A pleasure Ms. Potter, I suppose I'll see you tonight at the dinner party."
"I suppose so." She mumbles as they take their leave, Mila watching every step taken away from her.
They made an odd pair and Mila can openly confess that she doesn't like an Original vampire so close to her only non-supernatural human friend.
.
.
.
There's banging on her front door at half past five in the evening.
Curiously she walks to the door not feeling any malicious intent coming from the other side. Glancing back at Teddy, who is fully enraptured by yet another episode of Mickey Mouse Club House – she eagerly awaits the day she'll never have to hear that annoying song ever again – she opens the door to Dr. Martin's less than pleased face.
"You were meant to keep her in line." The accusatory tone has her stepping back.
"Jonas -" She wants him to understand that she refused to control Bonnie like he controls his son, she'll try to keep her in line but Bonnie's her own person.
"No, we had a deal and now my son was drugged and questioned. I thought you said you were going to keep Bonnie in line."
"I tried." Mila snaps, wand in hand to show him that he shouldn't even think about trying anything. "But we are different, Bonnie doesn't understand your ways and frankly I'm not the one who's supposed to be teaching her."
"You're still supposed to keep her away from my son."
"You're the one who pushed your son towards her." Her eyebrows furrow at his logic. "Stop trying to blame other people for things you set in motion, Jonas."
At her allegation he steps back away from her. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I? Have you ever thought of the possibility that maybe, just maybe, your daughter went willingly with Klaus?" When he refuses to meet her gaze she knows that he has thought of it more than once. "If she went willingly with him then there's nothing we can do. It was her choice, it is still her choice."
"She is young and naïve, she doesn't know what she wants, she doesn't know what's best for her."
"And you supposedly know everything." Mila snaps fire igniting in her veins, the words all too familiar to her. "The ever omniscient father who discloses nothing. I'm not surprised she left."
Jonas' lip curls as if to snap back at her but his eyes flicker down to her wand for the briefest of moments and she can see him barely restrain himself.
"It sounds almost as if you're dropping out of our deal."
"And if I am." She stares at him long and hard.
"Then do not think I will not retaliate for the injustice done against my son. I told you to keep her in line."
The barely restrained string of colorful swears follow Dr. Martin as he hastily leaves before a phone glued to Mila's ear. Looking skyward she hopes that despite Bonnie's current feelings towards her she'll pick up the damned phone. Cringing at the thought of having to go to the dinner party after the conversation with Dr. Martin Mila sighs, nothing ever seems to go her way.
At this rate, she'll be lucky to make it by dessert.
.
.
.
She barely makes it in time for dinner.
Nevertheless, she's there exchanging hugs with Jenna, friendly smiles with Elijah and less than friendly looks with Damon. As dread creeps up in her she knows she shouldn't have come with Bonnie finding out why she had started helping her in the first place along with Jonas' anger at his sons situation Mila wouldn't be able to get through dinner without having less than four glasses of wine.
And apparently Alaric thought the same.
Alaric smiles at her reassuringly, almost knowingly as her refills her glass with wine. Jenna who's been subtly dropping hints and cold shoulders to Alaric the whole night strikes up a new conversation, this time about a topic Mila is intimately familiar with.
"Oh, it was just something I mentioned to Jenna earlier." Elijah began only just sending her smallest of glimpses. "A faction of settlers migrated from Salem after the witch trials in the 1690's. Over the next hundred years they developed this community where they could feel safe from persecution."
"Because they were witches." Jenna clarifies gleefully thinking such a thing had not existed. But it did, and Mila had studied it in History of Magic (well, she tried to if she stayed awake long enough).
There's a brief silence at the table before Andie breaks it with a strongly assured voice. "There's no tangible proof there were witches in Salem."
"Well, the lore says that there was this wave of anti-witch hysteria. It broke out in the neighboring settlement, so these witches were rounded up. They were tied to stakes in a field together and, uh, burned. Some say you could hear the screams from miles around us. They were consumed by the fire. Could you pass the..." Elijah trails off pointing towards the salad bowl closest to Mila which she hands over with a suspicious smile.
"That's starting to sound a little like a ghost story to me." John inputs but no one seems to pay him any mind.
"So, why do want to know the location of these alleged massacres?" Mila asks chin resting on a fist, eyes intensely focused on his movement awaiting his answer.
"A healthy historian's curiosity, of course." Elijah smiles pleasantly at them all but Mila can see the elusive movements of words he's kept hidden. It's much more than a historian's curiosity that he speaks of.
Sometime later as Mila's helping Jenna clean up in the kitchen she brings up the topic of the unusual and very recent tension between her and Alaric.
"I like him, Mila, I really do it's more than like, you know, I want it to work…"
"But?" Mila questions watching worriedly as Jenna sighs her shoulders slumping.
"….But I can't help but feel like he's keeping something from me. Plus, now I have John whispering in my ear even though I know I shouldn't listen to him but some of the things he's saying -"
"What's he saying?" Mila steps closer to Jenna a look of mistrust towards the older man flashes quickly across her face.
Much like everyone else in Mystic Falls, Mila has readily joined the bandwagon of dislike that's aimed toward John Gilbert.
"Things I don't want to believe... things I don't believe, not if they're coming from John's mouth." She frowns looking to Mila for guidance despite the fact that she knows Mila has very little experience in the romance department.
"I know what it's like to be lied to, about big things too." Mila pauses trying her best to cautiously word her answer. "But there also could be a possibility that if Alaric was lying to you then it's not because he wants to, it's because he's thinks that it's either best that you not know or to protect you."
Of course it wasn't an issue of if but of what Alaric was lying about but it wasn't Mila's place to interfere and she knew that.
"Protect me?" Jenna scoffs rolling her eyes. "What on earth could he possibly be keeping from me that he needs to protect me from? And shouldn't it be my decision as to whether or not I think whatever it is would be dangerous for or to me?"
Mila shoulder slump as she stumbles on words that won't come out of her mouth and decides instead to comfortingly hug Jenna and leave it at that.
She knew all too well what keeping things from people (important things especially) could do not only to the relationship but to both of their lives. When everything goes down, Mila decides, she'll tell Jenna about her. Screw the Statute of Secrecy, Jenna's important to her and she'll tell her if she wants.
Of course, she only tell her after Ric man's up and talks to her first.
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A/N: I'm lame for updating after such a long time, but it's hard to write when you don't feel inspired. Anyway, I just wanted to get this out there I'm not exactly extremely happy with it but I feel like there isn't much more I can do with this particular chapter.
P.S: Changed the format of the chapter, hope you don't mind.