Silent Vows || Elijah Mikaelson

i. The Beginning

Grief. It's a weird feeling.

People experience it in different ways.

To some, it can feel like you're standing on the edge of the infinite ocean, staring at the deafening waves, watching as they crash along the shore. Each wave brings forward your emotions, ranging from anger to sadness. It's like a bottomless pit, trying to pull you into its depths. No matter how much you try to resist or deny it, grief pulls you down into its darkness, enveloping you in its embrace.

Other times, people try to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. They grasp the faintest glimmer of light, holding onto it with dear life. Through teary eyes, they look for signs, any sign at all, that they will be able to heal. They take one step forward at a time, making their way through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and then finally acceptance. Even when they think that there is no end to the darkness of the tunnel, they still keep on, waiting for the time where they have peace.

But for Jamie Gilbert it was just silence. No emotions. No feelings.

Nothing.

Just a suffocating fog that made her feel disoriented and alone.

Her sister was pretending like everything was okay and her little brother, well he started to turn to drugs. And bless her aunt that came to take care of them, she was trying her best.

Still, Jamie felt as though she was drowning in a void of numbness, where even the simplest of interactions felt hollow and distant. The silence surrounding her grief seemed to increase the constant ache in her chest, leaving her feeling isolated despite the presence of her family. While her sister put on a brave face and her brother sought solace in substances, Jamie struggled to find her own way through the fog of emptiness that consumed her. Despite her aunt's best efforts to provide comfort and stability, Jamie couldn't shake the feeling of drifting in a world without sensation. She longed for a spark of emotion to break through the silence and lead her back to herself.

But, alas, the silence never stops. Jamie felt like a ghost, unable to reach out and grasp the threads of life that seemed to slip through her fingers like sand. Each day blurred into the next, a constant cycle of a life, one that would forever be without her parents. Despite the efforts of those around her, Jamie remained trapped in the suffocating hold of her grief, unable to find a way out of the numbing void that consumed her soul.

Jamie held onto a sliver of hope, a belief that somewhere, somehow, there existed a path back to the light. Whether that be a year or years, she just wanted to go back to having a real smile on her face. She wanted the feeling of happiness back.

However, just when a little bit of normalcy was starting to return to the town of Mystic Falls, the Salvatore's decided to return, bringing with them the age-old conflict of vampires and humans.

Despite her longing for happiness and normalcy, Jamie found herself in a world of supernatural creatures. The presence of the Salvatore's served as a stark reminder of the fragile balance between darkness and light, threatening to shatter the fragile peace Jamie had begun to find within herself.

And so, this is where the story begins.

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"Jamie! You're going to be late for school." Her aunt's voice rang out on the other side of her bedroom door.

Right, it was the first day of her Junior year. Just great.

"Jamie?" Jenna's voice came again. 

"I'm up." Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears as it echoed throughout her room. Turning her head to the right, she looked at her clock which showed that it was 7:30. She was supposed to care that she was running late, but...