Willow ↠ Elijah Mikaelson

86

Her heart raced a mile a minute; partially because she was terrified, partially because her body was trying to keep her alive and moving in this sub zero weather.

Her feet were at the edge, stood on a rise in the ground that made a small, minute cliff for her to jump off into the river. Giving her drop a little more force, enough to disable her and stop her from changing her mind.

Willow's breath could be seen in puffs of smoke as she exhaled, looking down. It wasn't high, but it seemed quite a distance, life and death.

One quick step, one food was of the ground and hovering above the crashing water. Usually it sounded quite peaceful, but she could tell a small storm was on its way, the water seemed more violent.

With another swift doubt in her mind, Willow jumped back. Her heart racing more and more every time she looked at the water. Maybe this wasn't the most humane way of ending her own life; maybe she could have gotten someone else to do it for her. But she was here now and she'd curse herself for not going through with it.

"Man up" she pushed herself closer to the edge, telling herself off. She could do it, she'd surely been through a hell of a lot worse. There won't even be any excruciating pain, just heavy suffocation from blankets of water.

She didn't know what was worse, but then again she had never been drowned before. She had never experienced this before and it was scary.

And again, one foot stepped off the ground and hovered over the water, with one deep breath the fleeting seconds disappeared and she jumped.

A crash of water told Elijah that he was close to her, but maybe too late. He ran through the bayou, dodging trees and anything that would slow him down. Nothing ever made him feel so alive other than the thought of holding her in his arms once again.

He stopped at the small hill and peered over, without hesitating, Elijah threw himself into the water. It felt like a million needles piercing his skin, the water was borderline ice temperature, it was eating away at him. He was a vampire, never mind what it was doing to Willow.

He dived deep underneath, taking his last breath of air in and swimming down to the vision of black he could make out to be Willow. First, he grabbed her cardigan and pulled her into his arms as he rose to the surface. She was facing away from him when she could breathe, she didn't know who grabbed her, who stopped her from making her decision.

She wriggled, she tried wriggling out of whoever had hold of her. "Get off of me" she spat over her chattering teeth. This person moved her across to somewhere where she could stand up.

"Shh. Shhh willow it's me" Elijah hushed her with his soothing voice.

Was she dead? Willow could have sworn that Elijah was talking to her, that it was Elijah's voice coming from behind her. It was impossible.

She broke off and stepped back, turning around to see a small space between her and the man she had lost last year. "I'm either dead, or I'm dreaming" she murmured to herself, blinking fast and rubbing her eyes to make sure that her vision was correct. It was blurred a little from all of the water, and tears, and the fact that it was dark didn't help.

This could be anyone with a small resemblance to Elijah, it could be Klaus? Anyone else? Willow thought of any other possibility other than that it was actually Elijah stood there, living and breathing. It made her feel slightly nauseous.

"Elijah?" She managed to say, ignoring how the freezing water bit at her legs, it didn't matter right now.

Elijah seemed stunned to silence, seeing her actually here and being able to touch her and speak to her. Willow actually being able to see him, he no longer needed to watch from afar, he was there in the now, with her.

Speak, damn it. Elijah told himself, asking himself why no words were coming out of his
Mouth. He was leaving her on edge.

"It's me" he said, confirming the only thing she knew she wanted for the past year and a half "I'm alive"

It didn't seem real, even when he was talking to her, it seemed fake. She slowly waded through the water until she stood millimetres in front of him. Her hand touched his face, her skin felt numb against his, they were both freezing cold. But it was then she realised this was real.

"Oh my god Elijah" she jumped and hugged him, squeezing him without an intention of letting him go.

"Let's get out of this water" he said first, speeding out and onto dry land.

Willow let go and looked at him, her hands grabbing his face. She kissed him, taking small breaths to smile and cry hysterically "oh my god" she cried, kissing him again. "It's really you"

"It's me" he held her hand as it touched his cheek, he smiled down at her stopping himself from getting over emotional.

Willow bit her lip and smiled "I don't want to ruin any romantic, reunion moment we've just had" she said, now playing with his tie "but I'm absolutely freezing"

Both of them were so tied up in their moment that they forgot that both of them were actually submerged under sun zero temperatures for a good few minutes. Enough to probably kill weaker people, and probably if Willow didn't get a change of clothes and a heated room quickly then she'd probably be a goner from pneumonia.

"Let's get you home" Elijah said, preparing to speed off.

"I think I have a lot of explaining to do to your siblings" Willow cringed "I kind of left them a short letter"

"I know, I read it and there is no need to explain yourself. Though I'd prefer it if you had spoken to someone, then we wouldn't be in this situation right now" Elijah didn't want to lecture her, but he just needed to put his point across.

"I know" willow shook her head "I wasn't thinking straight"

"It's okay, now we need to get you back"