(CHAPTER SEVEN :
R IS FOR ROSALIE)

✧࿐ ཾ✧

THE NEXT DAY, DAVINA Claire provided me with a crash course on Adelina Blackwell. She had arranged for me to meet with Alex at Rousseau's come noon, forcing me to sneak out of bed before Kol woke up. For hours, Davina filled me on what she knew about Adelina — from her favourite movie (Heathers) to how she got the scar above her eyebrow (fighting with her brother.) However, the witch hadn't seen her cousin in a while, which left some blanks in the girl's history. For example, Davina didn't know what had provoked Adelina to run away — or at least tried to run away before Esther abducted her — and she was clueless why the twins to grew apart when they were once best friends. No matter how hard I tried to pry into Adelina's memories, she pushed me out every time I was close to finding out what happened between her and Alex. To me, that confirmed it was something terrible had happened, something more than an argument — why else would she be protecting him?

"Remember, don't lie. Alex will know, he's kind of intense, but maintain eye contact and if you're unsure, keep it short." Davina had advised before sending me off into the bar. In spite of her warnings, I had every intention of pushing Alex's buttons to find out what kind of man he really was. I had a bad feeling about him and it was about time I stopped resisting what I already knew in my heart.

When I spotted a man with the same midnight locks and alabaster skin as Adelina, I knew it was him from the striking resemblance and the few memories I had access to. Standing up from my seat at one of the more secluded tables, I offered him a close-lipped smile. "Alex." I greeted cooly.

He didn't return the polite gesture. Rather, he pulled out the chair opposite me and observed how I brought a glass of bourbon to my lips. His calculating gaze reminded me of Damon Salvatore — he even had the cerulean blue eyes to match. Yet, I suspected that the two of us wouldn't be nearly as friendly as I was with the aforementioned vampire. I tried to not shift under the heat of his glare, knowing that it was impossible that he knew I wasn't his sister after thirty seconds.

"I don't know if should be offended or flattered that you resorted to stalking your own sister." At last, I broke the unbearable silence. "When Davina told me you were coming to town, I was a little surprised. Considering what happened between us, it's laughable that you think you have any right to know where I am. I didn't contact you for a reason after I ran away." Swirling the ice in my now empty glass, I fed him enough information that it would squash his doubts whilst making an opening for him to steer the conversation to the fall out between him and Adelina.

"Who are you?" Alex didn't take the bait. In fact, he refused to move his eyes from mine even when Cami delivered an order of fries to our table.

I swallowed. "By blood, I'm your sister, but I'm not who I used to be. You don't know me anymore and you had no right to come here!" Deciding the truth was my safest bet, I supplied him with a filtered version of it. "Alex, I want to end this here and now. I'm not coming home and I want you to leave me alone." I demanded, looking for a quick escape before I exposed myself. Too focused on my desire to leave, I barely registered how the dark haired man flinched at the mention of 'home.'

He stole one of my fries and popped it into his mouth with a casual shrug. "Fair enough, but I want you to tell me why you're not coming home first." Alex spat the word, making me wonder if I had messed up. "Come on, tell me. Why did you leave?" Propping his elbows on the table, the Blackwell boy leaned forward as he challenged me to answer.

Like Davina instructed, I held his gaze and refused to back down. "Do you really want to know why I left?" This was a blatant effort to bide extra time for me to comb through Adelina's memories, but it was thwarted when Alex promptly nodded and the girl I was possessing continued to kick me out of her memories. "Because we're from a small town in Massachusetts and I want bigger things in life, Alex. Maybe we're twins, but I wasn't happy there — not really. I had to run because I needed to see the world without the rose-coloured glasses of our family where we were protected by our weapons and magic. What happened between us was what pushed me over the edge and gave me the courage to leave for good, I suppose." Without realising, the response diverged from what I thought Adelina would have said to taking from my own experiences. Suddenly, I wasn't playing a character.

"Fine." He deadpanned, causing me to release a breath I hadn't realised I was holding. "I understand why you left, but that wasn't why she left. She left because she was too much of a coward to follow through with what we planned. Frankly, I'm insulted you're still trying to keep this charade up." Narrowing his eyes at me, Alex started to shake his head, an emotionless chuckle escaping his throat. "Now, I'll ask again, who are you?" Although he sounded polite, it was hard to not miss the deadly undertone.

Icy chills ran down my spine and a gust of cold air blew through the doors, causing me to shiver. It had become clear that Alex hadn't thought Adelina was dead at all — not like he told their cousin on the phone. He knew why she ran and almost seemed relived when I responded wrong. There was no question that he was hiding something, something that had him desperate enough to travel across the country to keep hidden. "You don't need to know who I am." I countered, seeing no point in denying it now. "This isn't permanent, I just needed to . . . borrow Adelina for a while. You'll have your sister back in no time, although I doubt she'll ever speak to you again." I toyed with the witch, noting how he balled his fist up in anger. "Being in her body means I have her memories. Yes, I know your dirty little secret and I also know what Adelina thinks about it. She hates you." I lied through my teeth. Typically, I was a bad liar, but he didn't realise this in his state of paranoia. At the thought of somebody other than him and Adelina knowing what caused the deterioration of their relationship, he turned frantic — what happened was big enough that they warranted keeping it a secret from their own cousin, Davina.

"Then you know that if I killed my bastard parents then I won't hesitate in killing a stranger too." Alex snapped, my mouth slipping partially open at his confession. It all made sense — he murdered their parents, but Adelina couldn't go through with the plan and ran. "Lihednat dolchitni, lihednat dolchitni." Raising his hands in the air, the man started to chant one of his personal favourite spells. Soon enough, his voice had fizzled out to white noise as I was left to desperately claw at my neck. My lungs were on fire and my throat was being squeezed tighter and tighter like it was juice box. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe — that was all I could think when I was transported back to when I first transitioned. I didn't know if this was what people meant when they said their life flashed before their eyes, but I survived back then and I knew I could survive this too.

Every minuscule movement could be felt —from the grotesque bugs that crawled on top of my bruised and battered body to the unsteady, slow thumping of my broken heart. Everything could be felt, everything had been magnified and it made me want to scream. But, nobody would hear. They couldn't possibly as I was confined to four wooden walls, some kind of crate or casket. I was buried alive, I realised.

I inhaled once.

Whizzing by at a remarkable speed, cars charged ahead, the distant and excited chatter of people buzzed through the static air whilst I rotted. Somehow, I was decaying underground and nothing above ground had changed. Nobody cared about my whereabouts, clearly. Maybe I should had been more fazed by the peculiar instance that I could hear conversations when I was six feet underground, perhaps I should have been shocked about my suddenly impeccable hearing. But, I wasn't. There wasn't enough time to focus on any of that, there wasn't never enough time for anything. My priority was left to concentrate on breathing. Ignoring the deafening ringing sound in my ears and the ice cold temperature of my body, I focused on my breathing. It was the only thing that reminded me I was alive.

Flick. Then, like an elastic band that had been held back for too long, I allowed myself to implode. I was completely aware that I was going mad, I knew it from the moment that I had began to desperately claw away at the cheap wood of the box, chips flaking off with each scrape and scratch. Frankly, I hated feeling how I did. I hated how I had failed to keep my composure in the intense situation, I hated how I was panicking profusely and I hated how my emotions were building up inside me at a dangerous pace. Like a spider's silk web, my emotions were tangled into one intricate and complicated spiral. They were manic, all over the place even. However, anger prevailed over the others, my rage being stronger than those of fear or anxiety. And the only way to control my wrath would be to release it. Even taking myself by surprise, I clenched my fist and threw it directly upwards. Harder. Stronger. Quicker. Eventually, three holes had merged into one human sized one. Perfect for me to squeeze through.

Twice.

I did it. I squashed myself upwards and ignored how the splintering casket wood ripped at the expensive fabric of my fine dress, holding me back in the process. Not that quitting crossed my mind once. I knew that had to push upwards and break through all the dirt soon, only permitting my body to surrender to the exhaustion when I could breathe again.

I sucked in a third deep breath.

Once I had escaped, the air felt fresher and more valuable than it was me to before. After fighting through layers of mud, grime and waste, I was free from the confinement of the coffin. Presumably, by the way the sky had long since darkened, it had taken me a fair hour or two to pass through. Now I was here, I didn't know what to do. From what I could remember, it was the early hours of the morning last I was aware. That was obviously before I, somehow, ended up buried alive. I didn't even know how I should feel about being buried alive. There was not a natural reaction to that, it was just a rather odd occurrence. Since the traumatic experience, I had felt different. Despite how distressed I was underground, I wasn't overly afraid.

I could breathe again.

Unbeknownst to me, Kol had been lurking in the shadows of the bar and entered the light to help hold my weakened body upright. "Shh, darling." He cooed as I buried my head into the shoulder, shaking. I regretted agreeing to meet Alex, it was stupid and I should have been more insistent on Davina cancelling his visit somehow.  "I compelled him to go home, he's gone and I promise he won't be bothering you again." The Mikaeslon reassured me.

"I-I thought you'd be spending the day with Davina to ask her about . . ." I trailed off purposely, cautious that Marcel's lackeys were always hanging around in this city. Last night, Kol hinted that he would try to find a witch to help me return to my original body whilst I dealt with my Adelina issues.

"Next time, I'll leave you to suffocate in a bar then." He hissed. Naturally, he had expected me to be more grateful and not immediately ask about another girl.

I brushed myself down and wobbled on my legs slightly whilst I tried to regain a sensible composure. "I didn't mean it like that." I sighed. "But, out of interest, did you speak with Davina or not?" I asked, itching to get out of Adelina's body more than ever after the heated encounter with her potentially insane twin.

"She's the one who told me where you were." He stated blankly. "And she agreed to help us — she spoke with Marcel and he gave her permission to do the spell. All we need is your ashes and then you'll be Charlotte again." As he informed me of the situation, I had to bite back at a grin. Maybe the stars had finally aligned for us.

"Thank you, Kol — for everything." My voice was soft. "For talking to Davina and saving me. Even if I could have handled it myself." I drawled unconvincingly. Whilst I was armed and capable of fighting back, it had been like I was stuck. Frozen in that moment and seventeen again — that newly turned vampire that had been buried six feet underground.

Kol gave me a stern look. "It didn't seem like it then." Spinning me into his chest, he tightened his hold on me and it was only then I realised how tall he was. "It isn't a crime to need help. You can't do this to me again, Charlotte. There's no The Other Side anymore and you could have died today. I can't lose you again, I can't." The Original stressed, allowing all his pain, hurt and torment that stemmed from my death to break through his typical conceited tone. It was a rare occasion where I saw him vulnerable.

Pushing up on my tiptoes, I craned my neck upwards and pecked him on the lips. "You won't lose me again." I rested my forehead against his own. "Although, I hope you aren't going soft on me now. Next thing I know, you'll be picking us matching sweaters for your family's Christmas party." Despite teasing him, I secretly liked how much more expressive he was being with me. After our reunion the night prior, I was confident that we had reached a state of bliss in our relationship since we were no longer afraid of admitting we were two fools in love.

"If that ever happens, I give you permission to stake me. Pro—" His laughter died out, leaving him to sharply cut himself off. As if a light inside him had gone off, his smirk dropped and he tensed when he saw something over my shoulder. "Rosalie." Shocked, he breathed out a name that was somewhat familiar to me. Frowning at the change in him, I follow his ogling to the latest Rousseau's customer.

In the doorway, Rosalie Windsor stood with a wide-eyed gaze and soft Harlow-gold waves that framed a halo around her head. Perhaps the petite woman's most striking feature was her eyes — they were a deep shade of violet, brimming with warmth and wonder. Paired with the glow of her porcelain skin, her high cheekbones and full lips — she was a snapshot of heaven in its purest form. In an instant, I was comforted by her larger than life presence and urged myself to have trust in the pretty face. Yet, there was something twisted bubbling in my stomach. Suspicion. Jealousy, even.

"Kol Mikaelson." She acknowledged the man gleefully from afar and didn't hesitate in sashaying towards the two of us with a show-stopping smile and movie star hair toss.

Cautious, Kol brushed his fingertips against the girl's arm to check she wasn't a figment of his imagination. "You died, I saw your body." He muttered, the image of him holding his fiancé's bloodied body had scarred him to this day. I noticed how his eyes misted upon seeing her — I almost felt the need to remind him I had died too, if only to get him to look at me again. "How is it possible you're alive?" He implored, inching closer to his old flame and further away from me.

She remained silent for a prolonged period of time. "Esther." Rosalie said the name like it was foreign to her tongue and she was still learning how form the word. "She told me that she was your mother and wanted us to be together again." I didn't need to hear her heartbeat to figure out that she was nervous and most definitely forgetting some vital details. "She gave us her blessing to marry! Isn't that wonderful?" The woman sounded out of place in modern New Orleans, but her excitement was infectious and left the entire bar abuzz with a newfound energy.

Doubtful, I realised that Kol was far too awestruck at her reappearance to interrogate her potentially malicious motives. "This is Esther we're talking about. She isn't that nice, what's the catch, Angel Eyes?" I mentioned, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at how oblivious she was. Esther had no reason to be kind to the same children she repeatedly sought to kill, so there was definitely something wrong if she was arranging a marriage for the same son she despised the very nature of. Especially when she had wanted me to use my romantic relationship with him to her advantage— not that I had or would.

"I'm not back permanently, Kol." Regardless of me being the one to ask the question, she brushed my existence off and directed her reply at the Original. "You have seven days before I die again. However, my lifeline is bound to the permanent death of Charlotte and if you kill her, I'll be fully resurrected." She elaborated in a monotone manner, mimicking the exact wording of Esther to ensure there were no loopholes to be exploited. "Your mother knows what you've been planning, my love. If you choose Charlotte over me, she'll be punished all the same. In saving my life, know that you would be saving her pain too." The blonde concluded thoughtfully. Once she was satisfied with our stunned expressions, she strutted out of Rousseau's with an extra swing to her hips this time.

As I watched the undead woman leave, I thought back to what Esther had told me only the other day — 'it wouldn't take much for me to replace you with another lovesick girl.' I had never imagined she'd follow through with it, that was my first mistake.

Within seconds of Rosalie's exit, the R that Esther had carved into my collarbone glowed a hot red as if it was being burned deeper into my chest — like I had been branded. I hadn't thought much of it when it hadn't healed after I accepted Kol's blood, but now I could see it was magical, a sign that I was the witch's property. Seething in pain, I rested my head on a dazed Kol's shoulder. I had received Esther's message loud and clear; I shouldn't have betrayed her.

✧࿐ ཾ✧

A.N: Rosie is here! She's been mentioned a couple of times by characters and was Kol's first love, so it's going to be hard to compete with that. Especially when Lottie has Adelina related problems, like the fact her twin murdered their parents and nobody knows. Not to be a tease, but I feel I gave you fluffy Kottie, but there may or may not be trouble in paradise soon.

What's your latest Netflix binge? I recently finished Glee and Stranger Things (I'm writing a Steve Harrington fic, so check that out if you think you might like that!)