The fire had burned itself to embers.
Only the hollow skeleton of the old church remained. Its charred bones clawing at the sky like the fingers of the damned. The night air was thick with smoke and the stench of burning flesh. A requiem for those who had once called themselves immortal.
After walking away from Giuseppe Salvatore, I walked far away enough, away from prying eyes, away from those who have questions that I don't want to answer. When everyone has left, I stood at the edge of the ruins, watching the last of the flames consume what was left of Katherine's legacy.
But the silence that followed wasn't peace. It was the quiet before something worse. The kind that presses against your chest until it hurts to breathe.
The man she had been running from, the one I had once loved, was still out there. And now, with Katherine gone, his gaze would turn elsewhere. It always did.
It would turn to me.
I keep telling myself that I can face him, but deep down?
Deep down, I don't know whether my heart is truly ready to see his face or hear his voice.
But I know, one day, the day will come where I will see him again. That is how fate works. They always play dirty with me.
What I hoped for was just not today, or tomorrow or anytime soon. I want more time.
As the final cinders died and the wind swept the ashes into the dark, I vanished with them. Dissolving into the shadows like a ghost of my own making. The past had burned to dust before my eyes. Yet the future was still unwritten. And when the time came, I would be the one holding the pen.
Or so I hoped.
That night, sleep refused to come easily. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the church, the screaming, the fire and the faces of the dead reflected in the flames. I told myself that it was over, that Katherine's death meant closure and now I can finally be able to free myself from the guilt, anger and revenge. But even now, the weight of everything I had done pressed on me like a curse I couldn't break.
No matter how many monsters I have destroyed, there was one truth that I could never escape.
I am one.
A creature born of two warring essences, light and darkness. A witch and a vampire. A paradox that should never have existed. And monsters don't sleep peacefully.
Eventually, exhaustion claimed me. But when it did, I didn't find rest, only the suffocating grasp of a nightmare that felt far too real.
I was back at the old cottage.
The one where it all began.
The air was cold and damp, thick with the scent of iron and decay. My footsteps echoed softly across the marble floors. Each one swallowed by the heavy silence that lived within those walls. Then, faintly, I heard it.
A voice.
A voice that I haven't heard for a very long time.
A voice that once cheerfully called me.
"Natalia..."
It was Naomi's voice.
It was soft at first, it even sound fragile. It was a whisper that carried through the corridors like the ghost of a memory. My heart stuttered. I followed the sound, turning the corner that led to her old room. The door was ajar, swaying gently as if the house itself breathed.
I pushed it open and I froze.
Naomi lay motionless on the bed. Her skin was pale as snow. Her lips was bloodless. Standing over her was Katherine. Blood dripped from her mouth and her eyes glinting with cruel amusement.
"I told you she was weak." Katherine said. Her voice was calm, as if she was taunting me.
"You should have let her die long ago. You shouldn't have saved her."
"No...." I whispered, shaking my head with tears starts pooling in my eyes.
"This isn't real. It can't be real. You are dead. I have avenged her. This shouldn't happened."
But it was. It felt real. Everything was. The heat, the stench and the dread pressing against my ribs.
"You brought me into her life." Katherine continued and her smile widening.
"You are the reason she's dead. You killed her."
"I brought you into her life because I want us to become a family. I want you to become part of the family that she has always dreamed. You are like my own sister, Katerina, and I loved her as my own daughter. But you used that against me. You betrayed me!"
"Family? Have you forgotten who I am? Have you forgotten the law of the nature?" Katherine said as she walk closer towards me.
"Have you forgotten who you are?" She whispered into my ear and her words echoes inside me.
"I was just trying to protect you both. I don't want another me in this world." I stammered and my voice trembling. Katherine laughed and I turn my head to look at her. Her face was mocking me.
"Protect us? You created me, Natalia. You destroyed her." She laughed again. Her laughed was cold and it created a hollow around that echoed in the room.
And then, before I could said anything else, the impossible happened.
Naomi's eyes snapped open.
They were not the eyes I remembered. There was no light and no warmth in her eyes. There were only death.
"Why didn't you save me?" She whispered. Her voice was a broken melody. She sat up slowly and her movements was stiff and unnatural.
"Why did you let her do this to me?"
"Naomi..." I took a step back, my breath catching.
"I didn't know. I swear I didn't know."
"No." Her voice rose, sharp as glass.
"You brought her to me. You let her into our lives." Naomi said and each of her word was a dagger, slicing deeper into the place where my heart should have been.
"I'm sorry." I said. The words were barely a whisper, but it was all I had left. That was the only thing I could say. I could see Naomi's eyes hardened.
"Sorry isn't enough." She stood over. Her blood soaked hand reaching toward me.
"You should have protected me. That was your promise. Remember?" Her touch was ice cold. The moment her fingers brushed my cheek, the chill seeped deep into my veins, freezing me where I stood.
"You deserve this. You deserve to suffer as I did." She hissed.
Before I could mover, her hand closed around my throat. I gasped as my fingers clawing at her wrist, but her grips was merciless. The room spun, the walls bending into darkness as her voice echoed around me.
"This is your fault!"
I feel.
Into the dark.
Into her rage.
>Present<
I woke with a sharp cry and my hand instantl flying to my throat before I even understood why. My chest ros and fell in frantic rhythm. My lungs straining for air that suddenly felt too thin, too heavy.
For a heartbeat, I didn't know where I was. The shadows still clinging to my eyes like the nightmare refused to let go.
Instinct took over before reason did.
I was on my feet in seconds, stance shifting into defense. My vampire eyes cutting through the darkness of the room. Every flicker movement, every whisper of air, I searched for it. For her. My hands trembled, half raised, ready to summon a spell.
But there was nothing.
No blood. No screams. Just silence.
My body remained tense until the familiar stillness of my room sank in. I was home. Safe, or a close to safe as I could ever be. The realization came like a slow exhale, painful and shaky. My legs gave way, and I sat back against the headboard, trying to calm my breathing.
The shadows on the walls still ld wrong, stretched, watching. The remnants of the dream clung to me like smoke I couldn't wash away.
Then came the quiet.
The kind that isn't peace, but emptines.
And beneath it, I heard it again. The slow, steady beat of a heart that refused to die.
Mine.
The taste of guilt and pain still coated my tongue. It was metallic and bitter. My skin was slick with cold sweat. My hair damp against my neck. And in the hollow of that silence, her voice returned.
Naomi's. She was whispering, accusing.
You killed me.
The sound wasn't real. It couldn't be, but it filled the room all the same. It lived in the cracks between my breaths, in the space between my ribs.
Tears swelled before I could stop them. I pressed the heel of my hand against my eyes, but it was useless. They came anyway. Silent and relentless. I rose unsteadily and crossed the room, each step heavier than the last, until I reached the window.
Outside, the world was calm. The stars hung high and cold, scattered across the sky like a thousand unkept promises. Mystic Falls slept below, peaceful and unaware.
But peace was something I would never have.
I pressed my palm to the glass, the chill seeping into my skin. My reflection stared back, a ghost of the woman I used to be. The face of someone who'd seen too much, doe too much, and felt too littte for far too long.
"I'm sorry." I whispered. To Naomi. To myself. To the pieces of me that died with her. The words dissolved into the quiet.
I was a creature of sin and sorrow. A reminder of everything I had destroyed. No matter how many enemies I burned, no matter how many monsters I hunted, the darkness never left.
It just changed shape. Sometimes it looked like Katherine. Sometime it wore Naomi's face. And sometimes, it looked exactly like me.
Because the truth was cruelly simple. The monster I hunted was the one inside me. And the enemies I destroyed were reflections of who I once was.
There was no escaping that. No spell strong enough, no fire bright enough to burn it away.
I would carry it. the guilt, the grief and the unbearable silence, for as long as I lived.
And when the night came for me again, as it always did, I would face it the same way I faced everything else.
Alone.