( * & . — @tetheredtoelena. ( CALL ME FRIEND BUT KEEP ME CLOSER. )
NUMB. eyes hollowed. hands shaking, struggling to put the key in the lock of the caine homestead. voices of her family muffled — they sounded like they were underwater. ‘ oh honey, we’re so sorry ’ could have been something said, but the witch couldn’t tell you for sure. the only comfort she sought was that of the person she no longer could. sluggish footsteps carried her to her bedroom, the hollow feeling within her chest spreading like a plague. there were no words on her tongue, only the same phrase repeating itself in her head. ‘ he’s gone. ’ words she didn’t want to accept the first time & still hadn’t wanted to as she saw his lifeless corpse.
his voice. god, did she need to hear his voice. hands ran down her face, back up, & repeated — the motion quickening before her bedroom door slammed shut. eyes trailed to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of him in his own bedroom across her yard, but the room was dark & lifeless. like he was.
in that moment, something within her SNAPPED — the only grasp on who she once was, was held by jeremy. r a g e replaced any logical thinking, arms sliding over the vanity in her room — all of her belongings, trinkets, & books sent against the wall, glass breaking, shredding her skin in the process.
she felt sharpness in her chest like shrap metal before it was replaced by something frigid, knees hitting the hardwood flooring of her bedroom. ocean eyes froze over, light leaving the witch like she never had it, color replaced by blackened sapphire ink. an energy surged from her, through the room, breaking her mirror, sending furniture against the walls.
& she sat there. eyes trained to the wall like she’d gone too, blackness surrounding her like a miasma.
she was GONE. just like he.
in the end, it happened pretty quick. the finality spread through his limps just as sure as that last breath fell on unsympathetic ears. so many times, jeremy gilbert had taken this trip to the other side, only to be ripped back into the land of the living. this time, there would be no grace, and things were better that way– right? there was always a part of him, no matter how grateful, that thought the cost for his life was too high. too many people suffered because he came back– and continued to exponentially with each resurrection. he couldn’t allow it to continue.
so at the age of sixteen, jeremy gilbert came to terms with his own inevitable death. even convinced himself he’d welcome it when the time came. after all, his own acceptable would help those around him accept it, right? except when the moment happened, he was happy– in a new, human life, away from the supernatural world. so much crap in his past, and jeremy had finally escaped. when else was he going to be murdered?
there was no point in pretending that his mind didn’t turn to mystic falls when he awoke on the other side. after all, one second everything was crimson and the next? he’s standing in his childhood bedroom again. and jeremy tried everything to get her attention, but with the door to the other side closed, he had no physical foothold. every gesture to create attention failed at the start. but his determination to be the one to tell him own sister about his death kept the spirit around long enough to witness the fateful call. and he could only watch.
one name, said in passing amongst tears, caught his attention. magnolia. “shit.” the curse was to no one in particular, but rather pent-up frustration threatening to break. he kept remembering people who actually cared about him. he had felt so alone when alive, and now–?
of the hundred times they had snuck into each other’s bedrooms, why did this feel like a violation of her privacy? hesitation held him at the door, staring at the sight. her room looked like a disaster zone, as if a tornado had just finished tearing through it. and while he had never seen grief on her porcelain face, jeremy felt unsettled by something he couldn’t quite name. something wasn’t right.
“nola.” his voice soft, full of restrained apprehension. his eyes flickered over the the jagged edges of the shattered mirror glass. “i just…– i’m sorry. i know this is not what we planned, but you have to be careful. there’s so much more going on than you know, and i’m scared something gonna happen to you.“ if something hadn’t happened already. there was something horribly wrong with magnolia.
“even if you can’t see me, mags, please hear me!”