Salvation

20 Years Later

Rebekah

Five years it took for the stem to grow and another fifteen years for nothing. We sat around like this everyday waiting for the bud to bloom, for it to reignite our hope. A soft crack. My head cocked to the side. Another crack. My eyes enlarged and my breathing accelerated. "Nik Nik...Nik!" I yammered, prying the attention of everyone. They raised their lowered heads and followed my gaze and pointed finger. It finally happened. What we waited twenty years for, finally occurred. A sense of breathlessness washed over us as our eyes landed on the glass dome.

"She's..." Elijah and Freya began.

"She's alive!" Nik was fast on his feet, no hesitation as he scooped up the glass dome in his hand and gazed at the bud that slowly began to open up. I never saw him filled with so much joy and hope. He was a new man, and he radiated greatness. Closing my eyes, I savoured the moment. So much light, I reopened them. Freya held her hand out for the domed jar. Reluctant at first, he handed it over. Beaming wide, she inspected it, brushing her fingers over the smooth surface. There was a drastic change in the atmosphere; it was brighter and warmer. Of course, it would be! Sophia had returned and all was right again in our world.

"Rebekah love, call the Salvatores! We need to let them know!" Nik ordered gleaming as he grinned from ear to ear.

"On it!" I fished out my phone and pressed on Stefan. I waited but the call did not go through. Frowning, I tried another couple of times. "It's not going through..." I lamented.

Nik paused and turned around. "Right, Damon turned it off and they must be preoccupied with tracking him down...leave a message and urge they get down here ASAP!"

Doing as told, I left both Stefan and Caroline several urgent messages and voicemails. One way or the other, they needed to get the message. Freya placed the dome back down and started her chanting. The spell was to locate where she was. "She's in the womb and the due date is soon. I can see the mother...she's already having her contractions and they're very close!" Her eyes lit up and the light spread all around us. I threw my arms around Marcel and squeezed him tight, expressing my joy, sharing it with him. He chuckled, holding me to his chest.

"The littlest one is back!"

"I know! My best friend is back!" I exclaimed. I didn't feel like I was a vampire over a thousand years old, I was a normal girl who was getting her best friend back and nothing else mattered in the world. Qetsiyah's spell was a success and the darkness that clouded us, cleared, leaving us with a newfound hope and sense of fulfilment. Telling everyone how happy I was, wasn't enough. Words failed to convey what we felt, what Nik felt and how at ease he was at now. How relaxed his body became and every step he took, it was lively. We all forgot what Freya warned us on.

Stefan

I sat on her bed in what was once her room. It was just as she had left it; everything in its place, nothing touched. Twenty years and the pain still fresh in my mind, in my heart and in my soul. Living everyday with this hole in my heart where she had been, where she could only fill. She needed me to be strong, but I couldn't when missing her was stronger than anything else. I let the tears slide down my cheek, sitting amongst her things and clutching her favourite cushion to my heart. The search for Damon continued. Shockingly, he did not leave a trail of dead bodies behind. He was going from state to state. It was Caroline who joined the dots; he was going back to every place he had ever went with her-with our sister. His motive was unclear, but the little clues and evidence left behind was enough for us to pin down and use against him.

It took me several years to come to terms with him abandoning me; he lost everything, and I at least had Caroline. For that I was grateful. "I'm not doing so great without you...without either of you." I confessed to the photo frame of the three of us. "I don't know what to do! I've been trying to start life over and over again, but I keep failing..." with vision blurred by tears, I stared hard at the frame, giving each sibling equal attention. "Tracking you down Damon, it's supposed to keep my mind off our sister, but I'm lost without you both!" There was no response from either of them. It was foolish to believe I would get one. I scoffed to myself. I was speaking to a picture frame after all.