Changing the Future

Chapter 17

Days before Matt kidnaps Jackson

Matt POV:

It had been three nights since Elena passed.

Three long, hell-ridden nights.

Every creak in the floorboards felt like her laugh. Every wind brushing past the windows sounded like her whisper. And when he closed his eyes, her voice echoed in his mind like it belonged there, like she refused to leave him alone — because maybe, just maybe, she didn't want to.

He hadn't meant to blame Hayley. Not really. But she was the catalyst. The new variable. The stranger who'd come in with wolves and witches at her heels, who'd flipped their world upside down.

And now, Elena was gone.

He lay back on his bed in the Gilbert house — too haunted to be home, too familiar to be safe — and finally, finally, sleep claimed him.

⸻

Dream Sequence:

The world around him was mist. White, glowing. Still.

And then, Elena.

Smiling.

Dressed in soft blue, barefoot, radiant — not like a ghost. Like a memory reborn.

"Matt," she whispered, walking toward him with outstretched hands. He caught her fingers like they were the only thing keeping him tethered to sanity.

"Elena?" he croaked. "You're—am I dead?"

She laughed gently, like old times. "Not yet. But you need to listen."

He tried to pull her close, but she stepped back.

"Hayley didn't kill me," she said softly. "She saved me. I had to go... to help stabilize the Other Side. My death sealed the barrier to keep the Ancestors contained."

His brows furrowed. "But why you?"

"Because I was the balance. The doppelgänger. And because I volunteered. For you. For them. For her."

Elena touched his chest. "Matt, she's not our enemy. She's the one keeping you all alive. And now... I'm her guardian angel. I'm with her. So when you protect her, you protect me."

⸻

Matt woke up crying.

But not from grief — from clarity. From purpose.

He sat up, wiped his face, whispered: "I'm sorry, Hayley..."

And then, the candles in his room blew out.

The air turned cold.

He didn't even have time to reach for his stake before the witch stepped out of the shadows — cloaked in black, eyes glowing dark violet.

She said no words.

Only a chant.

He tried to move, to scream, to run — but his body froze as her hands pressed to his chest.

He felt fire. He felt ice. He felt him.

Mikael.

⸻

Mikael's Voice in His Mind:

"Welcome, boy. You seek redemption. I offer it. Hayley is your light — but that light is being smothered by my children's corruption. Let me help you cleanse it. Let me help you save her."

Matt gasped, tried to fight, tried to push him out — but Mikael's power was ancient, jagged, like shattered glass in his soul.

Still... something inside him refused to break.