I Know The End | D. Salvatore

Frozen in time

Dear diary,

My mind is completely blank, devoid of any words that I could write onto the empty page. I sighed softly and tapped the pen against the lined paper. My mind is too full for this to work. I have too many thoughts and not the right words to express them. Besides, I'm far too paranoid about someone finding it and reading my thoughts.

I closed the leather bound journal with a quiet thud and pushed it across the desk. This just isn't working. Elena had been insistent that I try it, because it works for her. But trying to write down my thoughts, my emotions, my pain, just didn't appeal in the slightest.

I clicked the end of my pen a few times subconsciously before I dropped it onto my desk. It landed with a light clunk, and directly onto the thin sliver of sunlight that was peaking through the gap of the blinds that draped across my window.

The only light aside from that was the soft glow of the fairy lights that were strung across my ceiling. It made for a comforting atmosphere, one that I desperately craved. Which is how my bedroom became my safe haven over the summer.

This isn't how I imagined this summer would go. I had so many plans, but those plans were plunged into the depths alongside my parents, never to be seen again. I was going to start my second semester of college, but I dropped out before it could even start. Ever since the death of my parents, leaving home again didn't seem very appealing.

All of my friends from high school had moved out of Mystic Falls, and my college friends were all starting their next semester in a couple of weeks. While I stayed exactly where I was, like I was frozen in time. Unmoving and stuck in my childhood home, where memories haunted me in every corner.

I heard shuffling in the quiet house as Elena and Jeremy got ready for their first day back at high school. Before I had graduated, I used to think that I would happily sleep in while my younger siblings went to high school, but sleep didn't come easy these days.

I heard my door creak open, and I spun my chair around to see who it was. Elena lent on the door, a pitying look in her brown eyes that I hated. "Hey, I just thought I'd check on you before I went to school." Her voice was soft.

"I'm fine. Have a good day." I forced my face into a smile that was visibly pitiful.

"Okay." Elena smiled back, a look of reluctance on her face as she shut my door and left me in my own self pity.

I tell myself that I stayed because they needed me to stick around. But the truth is that I needed them, and that I could hardly manage the thought of leaving after everything that had happened.

The rest of the day went by in an uneventful blur. I did manage to take my meds, shower, and eat. Which I consider to be a win. It was the evening when I was curled up on the couch, the tv was playing a show that I wasn't watching, finding myself too occupied by my phone. Elena had come home from school an hour late, having stopped off at the cemetery like she always does.

The door opened, and I looked up from my phone automatically at the noise, watching as Elena opened the front door and leaned against it almost sheepishly. I watched with a curious gaze, wondering who she was talking to.

My curiosity seemed to win me over, and I put my phone down, pushing myself up off of the sofa and walking over to the front door. I placed a hand on Elena's shoulder, catching her attention and making her open the door wider. On the other side, there was an attractive guy with sandy blonde hair standing with his hands in his pockets.

"Um, Stefan, this is my sister, Althea."

"Please, just call me Thea. Althea makes me feel like an old woman who has six cats." I said, making Stefan chuckle lightly.