Red Thread ▹ Rebekah Mikaelson

06.

red thread.

06. still you break your back by holding the sky in your palms

___________

Foster left her home in the early morning hours. She had woken to the smell of blood and found Stefan in the parlor, two girls allowing him to feed from them. Luckily, she was out of her house before he could see her.

In the woods, Foster halted her movements when she heard a small patter across the ground, and she turned toward the sound, ready to catch the small animal. Finally with the small rabbit almost in hand, Foster made her move, but was put off by a loud explosion nearby.

She huffed in annoyance and looked at where the small rabbit was scampering away. "You win today, Thumper."

Walking around aimlessly, Foster played with the hem of her shirt until the voices become clearer. She froze when the smell of vervain entered her nostrils, but there was also a mixture of vanilla and cedar which caused her to relax.

"Look, I get why you're here," she heard Alaric say. "Stefan hurt you. You don't want it to happen again." Foster's features softened, the events from the night before coming back to her. The sounds of Elena's screaming, and the blank expression that Stefan was wearing. Although, the worst of all ― she remembered the want of the doppelgänger's blood just before Klaus snapped her neck. And, honestly, she couldn't have been more relieved that he did in the moment.

"But you think I'm crazy to believe I can protect myself from a vampire who's flipped the switch on his humanity."

"I think you found a way to get out of bed this morning, and that makes you the strongest person I know." Foster smiled softly from her spot behind the tree, agreeing with every word Alaric says. "I think that you can do pretty much anything."

"Me too!"

Both Alaric and Elena turned toward the voice; Alaric pointed a cross bow at the figure. He lowered it when he the person holding her hands up in surrender before she came out.

"Foster, what are you doing here?" he asked, placing the weapon on the ground.

Foster shrugged. "Well, to be honest, I was hunting the cast of Bambi before an explosion scared every animal away." She looked pointedly at Elena and Alaric and Elena. "What would you two know about that?"

"You're getting back on the animal diet?" Elena questioned, Foster nodded.

"Yeah, I'm trying. Not really succeeding though." Alaric opened his mouth to apologize for the explosion, but Foster waved him off. "It's just....being a vampire is hard."

Elena looked as if she was about to asked something, but stopped and narrowed her eyes a little. "Foster, what are you wearing?"

Looking as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Foster began backing away. "Nothing," she said a little too quickly. She was too focused on Elena that she didn't notice Alaric sneaking around to read the back of her shirt.

"F. Salvatore," he read aloud, causing Foster to spin around at stare him in horror. "Ain't no-bunny got nothing on me," Elena finished reading from the back of the Salvatore's shirt.

Foster groaned and threw her hands up. "What? Caroline made it for me! She said every team needs team t-shirts and that since we were the sober team, She said we needed motivation!" Alaric and Elena continued to laugh, not bothering to look at Foster's glare. "I hate you guys."

___________

     "Here we are. Senior year."

Foster stared up at the school building, her mind vaguely aware of Caroline's words, but not fully. She didn't want to be there. Not just because of the school part, but when she looked around at all of the students, she didn't see their smiling faces, she saw a numerous blood bank.