Lost and Found (The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 17: Three Words

Jade's view

Three words. That was all it took to change someone's entire perspective on life. Three little words and everything you do ends up with a completely different motive behind it. For instance, before these three words, I was trying to keep myself alive for the obvious reasons; not wanting to die when I still had so much to do, so much to try out, and so many people to meet. But those things didn't even come into account anymore…I was keeping myself alive for him.

The only reason I mattered anymore was purely because I mattered to him, that my presence alone could make him happy, making me happy in return.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to make him feel the same way had been cruelly snatched away from me, and now those three words were sitting on the tip of my tongue, waiting to be said out loud, but with no-one to say them to.

All this was running through my head while being dragged through the cave-like corridors by Katherine and Klaus. Two psychotic vampires who wanted my head on a platter for some reason that was beyond me, how did my life ever end up like this? Not that it was ever really normal to begin with, but I didn't think anyone could have guessed that I would eventually end up in the predicament I was in now…not even the world's strongest medium could have seen this coming.

As I looked around I quickly realised that my own cell, which I had thought to be rather large in size, didn't even compare with the amazing network of complicated tunnels that I found myself trapped within. I whistled a long, drawn out note in admiration, "This is nice."

Klaus wasted no time in hushing me by clapping me over the head, "Keep quiet or you'll be sorry."

I couldn't help but reply under my breath, "Believe me, the sight of your face was enough to make me sorry for all three of us."

Both of them clapped me over the head this time, and not lightly at that, I stumbled, the two of them pulled me roughly to my feet and carried on without so much of a falter in their practised march.

Taking the hint I zipped my mouth and continued the rest of the journey in silence. With nothing else to do I admired the time and dedication it must have taken to produce such hallways of natural splendour. Everything was constructed of the same slippery, brown rock which was made even more incredible by the thousands of diamonds encrusted into its surface. If there had been any kind of light to bounce off of each tiny, individual crystal eye, then I was sure that it would've been nothing short of blindingly beautiful.

As it so happened, I was ninety-eight per cent sure that the place was run by vampires, making light a necessity that we'd never need. I also started to see how it all planned out in my mind's eye, quite simply, one long corridor with chambers branching off of it…in my dreams!

As soon as we turned a corner we were bombarded with a completely new maze of tunnels. It all ran deeper than a rabbit run in careful devoid of enemy lines. The walls were so close together that the three of us could only just walk side by side and each footstep had me inwardly flinching from the echo they produced. However, I kept my chin up and made sure not to drag my boot clad feet, even when my bare heels began to rub against the black leather (the lack of blood in my system made me more susceptible to aches and pains, and the absence of socks didn't help either).

Just as I was beginning to lose hope that there might actually be an end lurking somewhere deep within these Aladdin caves, we finally managed to run up against an ornate pair of wooden double doors, set in to the stone so subtly that it was as though Mother Nature had put them there herself. On closer inspection though, the woodwork revealed three blood-smeared words; 'Blood and Flesh'