บท 6: Filling A Role
A/N: I should have probably mentioned this in the other chapters but I thought it was obvious. I have been told I should do it regardless of how obvious it is.
So, I do not own The Vampire Diaries or make money off it. The only thing I own in this story is all the OCs you will come across and their impact on the plot. Thank you for liking this story so far and hope this chapter was to your satisfaction.
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Chapter 6
Filling a Role.
The fire roared as she walked towards the child's cries. The flames licked her skin, leaving traces of welts. She hissed at the pain. Neena walked into the flames. The child was wedged between the door and a desk. He looked about 5 years at most. Neena was sure it was the project manager's daughter. The desk had fallen on her leg, and she was crying her heart out.
Neena ran to the kid and tossed the desk off. She scooped the child up and ran back to the door. The child buried her head into the crook of her neck.
A rumbling sound echoed from above. Neena looked up. The ceiling had caught fire. Who even made wooden ceilings? She was sure it would cave in. Suddenly something caught her leg. She looked down. The bloody hand of the project manager. There was something eerie about her, apart from a part of her face and one of her eyes that were burned.
The child cried. Neena screamed. The woman pulled her down by the ankle. Neena hit head hit the floor hard.
As she lay in a pool of her own blood, the child was torn out of her fingers. Her vision darkened.
The fire was everywhere. It surrounded her. She heard screams, one of them was that of the little girl's. Was she okay?
The fire snaked around her body, and Neena screamed on and on and on...
"-eena! Aleena! Aleena!"
Neena bolted out of the bed and under it. Everything was hazy and her head was dreary.
Jeremy's concerned face came into view.
She could hear Caroline whisper something behind him, but she couldn't concentrate on what it was.
Jeremy moved away. And Caroline took his place. She laid down on the floor next to Neena.
"Hey... It's okay. It's okay," the blonde whispered to her and pulled her into a hug.
Neena forced herself not to tremble anymore. The fear dissipated.
"Do you want to come out? It's not fun under the bed."
Neena snorted. "Okay."
They came out and sat on the bed. Neena saw Elena glare at her and then walk away. Jeremy hovered around her, unsure on what to do. Caroline looked just as worried.
Neena smiled at them. "I'm fine. Bad dream. Thought I was burning in a room full of corpses on my way to join them."
Jeremy looked pissed off. "Do you think that's a funny thing?"
Neena sighed. "I'm fine. Leave. I want to sleep, guys."
Caroline hesitated. "Do you want me to stay with you? I can."
Neena shook her head. "I'm fine. Really. Go to sleep."
Caroline left. Jeremy stared at Neena. She tried giving him a reassuring smile. He held her in a tight hug, his body shaking.
Neena patted his back hesitantly.
He walked away before she could say anything.
Neena lay back in bed, trying to go back to sleep but it eluded her. She couldn't. Every time she closed her eyes she would see a sea of flames.
She sat up, deciding to practice magic instead.
This time she wanted to do something different. Something she had seen many fictional characters do: Telekinesis.
Being able to summon, repel and stop things with your mind would be the
coolest, ever.
Neena sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes trained on the snowball on the shelf. She envisioned it flying towards her, landing in her hand.
The golden energy within her stirred. It felt sluggish. The fear and melancholy her nightmare brought her hindered it. She tried to calm her mind, and use more of her magic. Her body started to precipitate. The magical threads became stronger, faster. She felt her magic envelope the cool snowball.
Her magic hesitated. Neena grounded her emotions, letting more magic envelope the object and 'pulled'.
The ball fell to the floor with a soft thud.
She blinked and a grin slowly formed on her face. She did it!
[Ding!]
[Skill unlocked: Telekinesis!
Congratulations, Host 999! You are progressing in your magical endeavours faster, even though your quest progress leaves much to be desired.]
Neena glared at the wall. She really wished she could chock the System at times.
[Host is having extreme thoughts again.]
'You know, I think it's because of you. You and Elena are anger inducing to my psyche.'
[Host is delusional again.]
Neena rolled her eyes and went back to her summoning practice.
Her mind numbed as she repeated the process again and again, pulling the various objects in the room towards herself. As the hours passed, her progress escalated. There was a drive to her practices in a way she never had before. As Neena Winston in had taken her a long while to complete even the projects she was passionate about, often barely making it by the deadline. She was sure it was Aleena Gilbert's behaviour that was influencing her. The drive to succeed, to practice again and again with a single minded determination to get what she wants. Neena envied the original host for having such an attitude, it could have brought her success, unlike herself. She also felt thankful for her influence, she finally had a taste of what it feels like to be so passionate about something that she could spend hours doing it.
It was 7:00 am by the time Neena felt that she had made progress with her summoning ability. Many things surround her in her bed. The easiest to summon was pencils. She had thought it would be pins but that had led to her had bleeding when she summoned it too fast. The most difficult to summon was her bag. The smaller things used lesser magic and larger things used more. She was sure that things that had magical properties would be harder because it had its own magical field but she couldn't test her theory yet.
When she finally made it down to the kitchen, Neena saw Jeremy with a sketch pad on the breakfast table. She was stunned at that. She hadn't thought her words had actually gotten through to him, regardless of what the System Quest had indicated. And although his concentrated drawing only lasted until Elena came in, it was a sign that she was doing the right thing. Maybe she could do this older siblings thing properly.
Neena made plans for herself. One of the biggest things was to learn how to cook. Neena did learn how to cook some basic things when she was living alone but Aleena did not have that talent and she couldn't just show skills she did not have before.
She opened her laptop to a cooking tutorial and then looked at the pantry. The Forbes were not much for cooking either was her conclusion.
There were some eggs, a loaf of bread, and bacon. The other things were Lite beers and diet colas. There was also frozen pizza from last night's dinner.
Elena got out of the bathroom by then, gave her a curious gaze, then went back into Caroline's room.
Shrugging at the girl's weird attitude, Neena went about to make omelette and toasted bread and reheated the pizza.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! New skill unlocked!
Cooking- beginners level 5!
People won't die from your cooking, Host!]
'I can almost hear the mocking in your robotic voice!'
[Host is hallucinating once again. Does host want a physical check up?]
Neena set her jaw and called everyone for breakfast.
[Please do not forget that you have a quest in the Meet the Gilberts Chain Quest.]
Neena nodded and plated the food.
Jeremy's only reaction was a raised eyebrow seeing his 'girls are not meant for the kitchen' sister cook. He then nibbled on the food with disinterest.
"How is it?" she asked.
"You forgot salt."
"Oh." That was a bummer.
Elena and Caroline came in together. The blonde looked ready to head out for cheerleader practice.
Elena looked at her with suspicion but sat to eat the food. Caroline had the biggest reaction.
"You cook! Since when do you cook!"
"Since this morning. I told you, trying to become a better version of myself and all that."
"Right! I forgot! Thanks for the food Ally!"
"I forgot to add salt. You should add some."
"Okay!"
Breakfast spent in school gossip of who was dating who and who was not, courtesy of Caroline.
Bonnie came in later on to go to Cheerleading camp with her.
"Hey, Bonnie!" Neena called.
The witch looked at her, weary.
Neena gave her a smile. "How is your Grams now? Is she okay? You left worried."
Bonnie relaxed and smiled back at her. "Yeah. She just pulled a muscle while moving some things. It wasn't something serious. Dad just panicked."
"That's good to hear!"
Caroline grinned at her. "I like this new you. You're so nice. It's almost like before you hit puberty. I swear, I wondered if your periods gave you trouble all the time with how you started acting."
Bonnie jabbed the Blonde with her elbow.
"Ow! What? I'm right! You know it too Bonnie. She was a bitch before her parents died Bonnie."
Everyone froze.
Caroline looked embarrassed. "Sorry."
Neena gave her an exasperated look. "It's alright. I know what you were trying to say."
"Right!" Bonnie said trying to dispel the awkwardness with a thin smile. "Let's go. We will be late!"
Excited, Caroline tried to get Elena to come with her but the doppelganger refused. She said she was not in the mood, and ran away in tears and shut herself in Caroline's room. Bonnie dragged the blonde away before she could resist or make the situation worse.
Neena stared after Elena's form, shocked by the brunette's sudden outburst.
Neena looked at Jeremy, who was walking towards his room to shut himself in like Elena.
"Hey Jer!"
Jeremy looked back at her.
"Can you come with me to go grocery shopping?"
"Why?"
"We are houseguest here but it would be rude if they pay for our food as well. And I don't want to shop alone..."
Jeremy nodded.
"Great! Let me get dressed, then we can leave."
Neena stopped in front of Liz's room and looked up at Caroline's. With an exasperated sigh she walked up to the door Elena was in. She kept forgetting that this was a girl who recently lost her parents and was hurting. Neena was sometimes biased against the girl thanks to the choices she made in the show and Aleena's prejudice. It was difficult to look past them at times.
Whatever may be the case, Elena Gilbert was her sister now. And Neena never had that before. The two sisters may have hated each other but it had to stop. The Gilberts needed to stick together for the supernatural disaster coming their way. She loved Jenna and Jeremy. She could see them as her family, and that meant Elena was family as well.
"Elena! Can you hear me?"
"What?" Her voice was muffled and trembling. Neena was sure the teen was crying.
"Do you want to come grocery shopping with me? I think we should make lunch for the Forbes. We can make it a Gilbert bonding section."
"No."
Neena tried a few more times but gave up when she saw she spent 10 minutes doing just that.
Grocery shopping with Jeremy was anger inducing. He put in unnecessary things into the cart and barely helped her get things she wanted.
She thought the entire trip would be boring but bumped into someone she was sure only returned to Mystic Falls on September. She bottle of olive oil in her hand nearly fell to the floor and broke.
Pale, strong hands caught it and placed it back into her hands.
She stared at the beautiful face in front of her. A pair of stormy blue eyes shone in amusement and curiosity.
"You should be careful."
Neena nodded, mind blank.
The arrogant smirk on the sculpted face grew.
"People usually say thank you when others help them."
Neena nodded, still dazed. "Thank you."
He grinned. "Your welcome, Miss..."
Neena just stared.
His eyes stared at hers. Curious. Amused.
Jeremy cleared his throat from behind her, snapping her out of the funk.
Neena shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She looked at the man before her who exuded the aura of sex on legs.
Neena felt her face heat up. She ducked her head, embarrassed.
"Neena- I mean Aleena Gilbert. And thank you, really."
"Damon Salvatore. And you're welcome. Saving beautiful women from breaking things is what I do."
Neena snorted. "So you lurk around in grocery stores waiting for opertunities to save falling bottles?"
Jeremy chuckled from behind her.
Damon smirked. "Yes. And it's a duty I take very seriously too. Lurking and all."
Neena smirked. "I'm sure. So... Salvatore huh? Any relation to the Founders family here in Mystic Falls? I know there is Zach Salvatore at the boarding house."
Something dark flashed in his eyes. "Yes. Zach is a distant uncle. We just moved back to town."
Neena shifted, cautious of that gaze in his eyes. It seemed a bit unhinged. Inhuman Damon was someone she did not want to provoke. Plot Armour was the power of the protagonist, and that wasn't her. She would not escape unscathed if Damon decided to use her as a living blood bag.
Neena gave him a thin smile. "We should go. Thanks for the help."
Damon frowned. "Do you want help carrying it?"
Neena shook her head. "Nah, we are fine. That's why you have little brothers you know. To do the tough work you don't want to do."
"Hey!" Jeremy jabbed her shoulder.
Damon smirked. "Ah... Like bullying the little brother huh? That's how they should be treated. How else would us elder siblings show our affection, right?"
Neena's eyes widened. She didn't think he would be able to talk about Stefan without becoming aggressive.
"Have one of your own?" she asked.
"Yes. About your age." There was amusement in his eyes as he said that.
"Will he be coming to our school then?" she asked.
Jeremy fidgeted behind her, probably getting impatient with the twenty-questions game she was playing with Damon. She didn't want to make a conversation with the repressed Salvatore, but she knew most people would be curious about such things and she needed to seem normal to the vampire. Making Damon think she is anything out of the ordinary would not end well for her. Especially since her magic was too weak.
Damon laughed. "That sounds like something he would do."
"Can we go?" Jeremy interrupted when he saw her open her mouth to ask something else. "We came to grocery shop. Not flirt with saviour of bottles here."
"Jeremy!" she scolded. She gave Damon an awkward smile, glad on the inside that Jeremy gave her a reason to stop talking to the vampire. "Sorry. We need to go. See you around."
Damon reached out to hold her hand.
Neena froze, shocked.
He kissed the back of it, and bowed. "Until next time then, Ms Gilbert."
Neena felt her face heat up even more. Even her ears were warm. "Ye-yea-yeah. Um...sure."
She sprinted away from him. She was sure her voice was squeaky and high pitched at the end. Jeremy ran after her, laughing at her running away in embarrassment while also grumbling about making him carry everything.
Neena turned back to see Damon leaning against the aisle, a smug smirk on his face. Huffing she walked away.
She was lucky that he had only flirted with her and not tried to compel her.
She really needed to get her hands on some vervain.
Elena was sitting on the couch when they got back.
Neena felt a headache coming when she saw the pissed off look on the girl's face.
"Where were you guys?"
"Didn't we tell you we were going grocery shopping?" Jeremy asked.
Elena rolled her eyes. "You want me to believe you spent so long just doing that?"
"What are you implying Elena?" Jeremy asked.
Neena looked at the two. She could feel the argument that was about to break out. The problem was, should she stop it? She didn't want to watch the two fight, especially with her own agitated mind after a conversation with Damon Salvatore. But the two younger Gilberts had barely talked to each other in these few days.
"You are seeing that Vicki Donavon again aren't you? Matt told Bonnie you still message her! Is it true?"
Jeremy glared at her. "You are not mom! Don't act like you can replace her or something!"
"Jeremy!" Neena scolded.
"You are being stubborn and not thinking about how this would affect everything!"
"Whatever. Screw you, Elena! Stop trying to replace mom!"
"That's not fair, Jeremy! I'm just concerned about-"
"I don't need your fucking-"
"That's enough both of you!" Neena shouted, anger in her voice and face. The younger Gilberts stared at her in fear. "I want to make lunch for everyone so that we can have a meal when Caroline and Bonnie comes back! We need to thank them for their support! Have so much pent up energy do you? Since the two of you have enough energy to antagonize each other, Elena, you go vacuum the house! Jeremy, you help me cut the vegetables! And no arguments! You will obey me! This is not our house! We are staying at someone else's place! There is no need to air our dirty laundry in here! We will deal with our issues in our own safe zones! Not here! Got it!"
Jeremy snorted. "Whatever."
Elena glared at them but still went to vacuum the place, using more energy than necessary to clean the same place more than a few times. Jeremy took the vegetables and started to chop them.
Neena smirked. She was sure that the two were using the chore as a way to vent out their frustration and anger. And that was something she wanted. She had read that doing repetitive household works were good for relieving pent up emotions.
Satisfied, she started looking up some simple recipes.
Lunch was egg salad, some chicken sandwiches and vegetable soup. Neena was proud of herself until Jeremy burst her bubble by saying she didn't put any salt in anything. Again.
Panicked, she tasted the food. It was salted.
She glared at Jeremy as he gave her a cheeky grin.
Elena threw away the vacuum seeing the other two Gilberts so cosy next to each other and ran back into Caroline's room.
She only came down when the Blonde girl returned from her practice. She had red puffy eyes.
Bonnie's Grams pulled her back again so the girl had went home.
The entire lunch was spent with Caroline praising Neena's cooking skills. Neena was sure the Blonde was more happy to be able to have lunch with them than her mediocre cooking. Her excitement overrode the two dementors sitting with them at the table.
After lunch she had asked if anyone wanted to help her do dishes. Caroline looked scared at the prospect and ran away, mumbling some excuse.
Elena stared at the dishes in the sink. She looked like she wanted to help but then she looked at Neena, a stubborn glint in her eyes.
Neena supposed that Elena Gilbert cleaning plates thing was meant of the adults in her life and not her hated sister. She watched her leave after Caroline. Jeremy left, saying he was meeting with friends and Neena guessed the friend was Vicki because of the excitement in his eyes. She couldn't really stop him and watched the door close.
Neena laid down on the floor and stared at the ceiling with a sigh. Trying to be the mature person was tiring, and she was an adult in her previous life. Teenagers were difficult to raise. She wondered how the parents of these kids did it. She wondered how Jenna would do it. The woman had tried in the original story but had been left in the dark about what her charges were up to most of the time, even during her death.
That was another thing she wanted to change. Jenna's death. But that was something she would think about when the time came.
During this summer she would try to become the emotional support that Jenna didn't have in the original storyline. She would be at least somewhat aware of the supernaturals around her.
And Neena knew how to do it too. It was really convenient that Aleena was a witch. It was the perfect opportunity to bring Jenna into the fold. It was role she would gladly take on.
But she had to get her magic up to party for that. She needed to get stronger. They were more reasons for her to practice her powers.
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A/N: Like always, please comment on what you thought of the chapter and the story so far. Your valuable feedback helps me understand what I'm doing right and what I would need to change.
Do give the story a vote if you want to guys!😋😃
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