ℍ𝔸𝕌ℕ𝕋𝔼𝔻 - ᴛʜᴇ ᴍɪᴋᴀᴇʟꜱᴏɴꜱ

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞 𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊

❧ making bad decisions ❧

≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫

Max stood still.

The tile beneath his feet were colorless and cracked, like flattened ash. The lights didn't buzz in the pool room. The water didn't ripple. Everything was still in a way that wasn't natural.

Max crouched beside Matt's body on the tiles, his fingers loosely curled over his knees. The tiles were damp, but they didn't feel wet to him. Nothing here had temperature. Just that flat, muted cold that clung to everything on the Other Side.

Matt's chest rose—barely. Then he coughed, short and shallow, and his eyes fluttered open. They weren't panicked at first. Just confused. He blinked up at the ceiling, squinting at the light, then slowly tilted his head. When he saw Max, his expression twisted with something between surprise and wariness.

Max didn't speak—not at first. He watched Matt take in the strange place, his eyes darting around just to realize that the place looked exactly the same as he knew. It was just the feeling about it that changed.

Matt's brow furrowed. "Who are you?"

Max's voice came out steady. "I'm a friend of Vicki's," he lied. "And I need you to listen to me very carefully. I don't have much time."

Matt's expression shifted from confusion to worry. "Why? What's happening? Where are we?"

"It's called the Other Side."

The answer came without hesitation. Max could hear it, could feel the sound forming in his throat, but it wasn't his though. His thoughts were trying to move his lips differently.

"I need you to give Bonnie a message."

Matt still looked lost. Afraid. But he nodded anyway.

"In order for Klaus' hybrids to work, Elena has to die. Just like she was supposed to during the ritual."

The silence after that was worse than any scream could have been. Matt didn't blink. His mouth parted, but no sound came out for a second. Finally, brokenly, he said, "Elena has to die?"

Max wanted to step back. Wanted to scream that this wasn't him, that he didn't mean it. But the body remained still, the voice calm, the message remaining.

"It's the only way."

The words echoed strangely here, like they were being etched into something invisible and permanent.

Matt's face twisted in shock, then disbelief, then pain. It all hit him at once. And then, just as quickly, he was pulled away from the Other Side. His time was up. Bonnie must have pulled him back.

Max stood there, unmoving, even as Matt's form dissolved into nothing.

Only once the last trace of him was gone did he feel a sense of pride. He did well. He didn't want to feel that way, but it came unexpectable, like it wasn't exactly him feeling it.

Max's jaw clenched. His breath came in short, invisible bursts. He wasn't crying, but he felt like he could.

And still, the Other Side held him.

###

Amalie sat on the roof of her car, knees drawn up loosely, ankles crossed. The metal beneath her was still warm from the sun, though it had started to cool, and the August air hung heavy with that kind of sticky weight that clung to the skin even after the breeze came through. She had one arm propped on her knee, the other resting in her lap as she stared out at the mostly empty parking lot.