The Young and Gifted

63. deja-vu

warning: mentions of suicide

Kaura lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as Mason watched her. She could tell he was waiting but what Vincent had told her was mind-blowing. "The new witch teacher has met my mother before," she muttered, turning to him as she propped her hand on her head to hold her head up.

Mason blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, turns out that he helped with the spell to resurrect me when I came out dead," she shrugged. "It's crazy to me. Such a small world. And get this, he told me that New Orleans has this special old shit magic that takes years of practice but since both my parents learned it, it passed down unto my magic."

"What does that even mean? All I hear witch math," he mumbled, pulling her into his embrace.

"It means there is a new region of my magic that I have yet to unlock. I don't know why I'm so excited. It's probably because everything makes so much sense. Maybe it's why it always seems like my magic is fighting me," Kaura revealed with a smile.

"He seems cool," Mason nodded, genuinely happy for her.

She turned to him and gazed into his eyes. "What about you? How's the new teacher?"

"She's interesting. She's been looking at me weird but it's probably just me. Overall she seems chill, isn't as much of a bitch as Clarke was. I feel like she'd be able to help a lot of students with their urges, especially mine," he shrugged.

Kaura kissed his cheek and slid off the bed. "That's good."

Before she could get to the washroom, Mason spoke. "Kaura." She slowly turned around, raising an eyebrow at his low tone. "What happened at the party?" She didn't answer as he rose from the bed, taking slow steps towards her. "I know it wasn't because you were drunk because I know how you are when you're drunk, you're just horny. So are you ready to talk to me?"

She didn't want to. Deep down, she didn't want to explain what was happening to her, didn't want to voice the feeling of something missing in her life. She didn't want Mason to get the impression that it was his fault but that was not how a relationship worked. It was about communication and from his perspective, she understood why she was concerned. Kaura sighed and threw her arms around his neck, taking deep breaths. "I've been seeing someone." Mason's face dropped and she quickly said, "Not like that. I've been seeing a girl, most of the time it's in flashes when I listen to music. Sometimes I'd see hair, sometimes eyes, sometimes a smile and at the party...I saw all of it. She looked familiar but...not familiar, you know? I had this sense of deja-vu and something just felt urgent about her presence. I just don't know what."

Mason swallowed, holding her gaze. "Do you want to talk about it with Caroline?" He offered slowly.

Kaura stepped back from him, glaring at him. "Mason. You know how I hate talking about my feelings. You're the only person I'm fine with talking about this stuff."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I know but you're not helping me at all. What am I supposed to do in this situation? I'm not a professional, and you're obviously suffering from trauma and all the shit that happened with the earthquake last year—"

"Just stop talking," she scoffed. "But thanks for making me feel crazier than I already do." Kaura turned to the door and slammed it hard before he could even have a chance to take another breath.

*

Caroline was just about to call it a night when Grace knocked on her door. "Sorry to interrupt, Miss Forbes but Principal Saltzman has asked me to summon you. He says it's urgent."

"Of course it is." Caroline rolled her eyes and followed the secretary out. She politely opened Ric's door and she wasn't surprised to see his office a blunt mess. "What's wrong now?"

Ric took off his glasses and placed them on the desk, glancing up at her. "Was this a bad time?"

She sighed, massaging her temples. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired. I feel like I haven't been able to breathe after rebuilding the school, on my own by the way, taking the girls on a vacation to de-stress after what happened and having to fly to New Orleans to see the new teachers."

"You can take a break, you know? We have Dorian and the others," Ric informed as Caroline approached.

"No, it's fine," she muttered. "I should be around just in case something happens to Stephanie. Elena will literally castrate me if it does. I spent hours past midnight listening to her threaten me about the safety of her daughter. But anyways, what's so urgent?"

"You know one of our new students, Jade, right?"

"Yeah, she killed herself and ended up becoming a vampire."

"I just took another look at her file. When Dorian interviewed her, she says she doesn't know how the vampire blood got into her system," he said as he held up a piece of paper.

"That doesn't mean anything, she could have accidentally ingested it without knowing—"

"That was my first thought too but it reminded me of Mason. He also said that he didn't know how the blood got into his system and after some more digging, coincidentally, he was in a relationship with Jade. Something about a car accident and Mason died with the blood in his system."

"Are you trying to say that Jade lied about how she turned?" Did Jade also have the blood in her system the day of the crash?

"No. She told the truth, I checked the medical records. She was transported to this hospital because there wasn't enough equipment to heal her in her town. And so did Mason when he got in the accident before. She was perfectly fine the day of the accident and had no signs of vampire blood. I'm assuming when Mason left she felt heartbroken for months by the break up and killed herself," he said.

"Okay. I'm still not getting what you're putting down."

"I don't think it's coincidental that vampire blood mysteriously ended up in both their systems."

Caroline narrowed her eyes, slowly linking the dots. "You think someone did it on purpose?" He nodded. "But that would mean that there is another vampire not accounted for in Mystic Falls, giving their blood to the humans without their consent."

"Or there is a human doctor that is giving their patient vampire blood to heal them," he concluded.

"Ric..." she said slowly. "That's farfetched. You know Jeremy takes care of those things, he would know and he would tell us."

"But what if he doesn't know?" He said. "A doctor's wish is to ensure the safety of their patient and I'm assuming it's terrible to have them die on you. That guilt must be heavy so slipping vampire blood into their system and giving them a second chance isn't farfetched."

Caroline glanced around the room. "I think you should take a break."

"No," he said and stacked the papers. "I'm going to look further into this because my gut is telling me that I'm on the right path."

~

"There's something missing from my memory. Someone."

try to guess who said it and don't forget to vote ;)