CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

    STUPIDITY.

Meaning? Behavior that shows a lack of good sense or judgment. Another way to phrase it one may ask? Thea.

"This is stupid." Carmilla watches Thea pack a suitcase, "Oh, this is so stupid." She palms her face.

"Are you saying this as my friend or my therapist?" Thea raises a brow, zipping up the bag.

Carmilla crosses her arms, "Both." She turns to look at Alice, who stands at the door frame with worried eyes. "C'mon, Alice, talk her out of this."

Alice had her lips parted but no words left. "...it's her sister, Carmilla."

Tanya walks over to her mate, seeing her frustration. "Carmilla, I don't think this choice is up to you. It's up to Thea."

"No." Carmilla steps away from her mate, "None of you understand. I spent years with Thea as her therapist. I know her mentally and emotionally, I know what this will do to you." She looks over at Thea with squinted eyes.

Thea sighs, shoving her phone into her jeans, "What happened to growth? Facing my problems and not hiding from them?"

Carmilla got silent, her lips parting, "Thea."

Thea puts on a faint smile, "Carmilla, I need this. I need to see if this can give me closure or...I don't know, whatever helps change these feelings that I've had for years. I have a chance, I need to take it."

Alice steps up, smiling ear to ear. "I support you, I do. I just want you to be careful, okay? If anything seems weird, you call me or Carmilla."

"Yeah." Carmilla was quick to agree.

Thea nods, kissing her mate before going down the stairs to where the rest of the family is.

Esme was the first to stand up from the couch, a soft smile on her lips, her gaze soft on Thea, "Are you sure you don't need any of us to come with you?"

Carlisle rubs his wife's back, "We can go with you, Thea, you know that."

"I know that...but I'm sure. This is something I need to do on my own." Thea nods, returning the same smile.

"I know you won't listen to anything I say but take this." Kate came around, a blue gemmed bracelet in hand, "It's supposed to protect people from negative energies or whatever—Carmen is really into this kind of thing and I'm not but better safe than sorry, right?"

Thea accepts the bracelet, placing it on her arm. "Thanks." She says both to Kate and Carmen.

Thea gives hugs to the rest of the family before she heads to a car that the Denali's was lending her for her travels.

Alice opens the driver's door for Thea, and she stops. "You always have a family here, okay?" Alice whispers.

Thea places her hand on top of Alice's, "No matter what, I'll always come back to you. Every single time, I'll come back to you." She leaves a kiss on her forehead, "I promise."

After a moment, Thea was about to drive off before Alice stopped her for a second time. "And...Call Emmett." Thea looks out of the window and up at her wife, nodding slowly before she drives off.

✸

The city was no longer the same. No surprise there, the once quieter town was now slightly louder to the ears. Small establishments were reformed into a buzzing success while others were completely erased from existence.

The air smelled the same, the past lingered and although Thea didn't love the past that she had from this town, she almost appreciated the familiarity, in nearly brought her a sense of comfort.

Everyone was walking down sidewalks, taking phone calls, gossiping with friends, and playing with their pets. Not once did any of them look at Thea. It was almost as if they were all the future and Thea was still living in the past while walking down the sidewalk, the sidewalk she walked along for years.

She stopped at a bakery, a very familiar one. Sweet Haven. Thea took her hand from her coat pocket and pulled on the door, the bell rang as she stepped inside.

Thea smiled at the smell of this place, out of all the bad that came from here, this was the one good thing that she loved.

"Brings back memories? It does for me too." Harper caught her sister's attention. Thea's smile falters, catching the eyes of the family she hadn't seen since that night in their home.

Thea turns to her sister, who is sitting by the window with a pastry on the table, uneaten. "I just wanted to see it, it's the one thing that makes me. I don't know—not feel so...afraid."

"A pastry makes you not feel afraid?" Thea raises a brow at her sister, sitting down across from her.

"You should know why." Harper chuckles, "Don't you remember? Anytime momma would come home, she would be in one of her moods...I would be shaking like a leaf and you would bring me and Ava here and get us some of the fluffiest donuts I've ever eaten, only for a few cents." Harper was reminiscing, her eyes closed and her head shaking back and forth.

Thea's stomach churned, her jaw tightening slightly. "...I remember."

Thea examines her sister. Her skin was pale, identical to hers. Her eyes were scorching red but her gaze was so soft yet intense, as if she was waiting to cause permanent damage in some form.

"You're wondering how this happened, hm?" Harper spins the pastry, "After being in that asylum and having every bad thing done to me because everyone thought I was a murder...it took a toll on me, as it would anyone."

Thea blinks, "Harper, I never wanted you to be punished for what I did...I—"

Harper holds up a hand, stopping Thea, "No need to apologize, the past is in the past. Moving on, one of the workers there at the time, Victor, was a vampire and he took a special liking in me, one that I never understood."

"Did he hurt you?" Thea was quick to question.

Harper was silent, her lips straight and pushed together, "He did. The worst part was...I thought it was love. Whenever he drained blood from me and used me as a never-ending blood bank—I thought, Hey? At least there is one person who can look at me and not be disgusted by what they see. Everyone saw a monster... but he didn't."

Thea's eyebrows knit into one, "I don't understand if you were a blood bank to him. Why would he turn you?"

"Because I gave him the one thing he craved more than blood...loyalty." Harper locks eyes with her sister. "I did everything he asked of me. I've killed with no remorse, I loved him with no restraint, there was no line I wouldn't cross for him."

"What happened to him?" Thea asks, "Why are you speaking about him in past tense?"

"I was beginning to realize who he was...he craved loyalty but so did I and when he didn't give me that...well...I killed him." Harper spoke blatantly, with no sign of regret in her tone.

"Shocker," Thea spoke in the same blank tone but sarcasm clearly lingered.

"Ever since then, I've been searching for you." Harper huffs, "Do you know how hard it is to find you on Google? Every time I search up Thea Quarts I only find the infamous stories of our history here."

"I'm no Quarts." Thea cringes at the name.

Harper raises a brow, in shock, "But you are, McCarty."

"Why am I here, Harper?"

Harper leans up in her seat, "We can be a family again. You and me. Do you remember the respect we once had just because of our last names? We were royalty. But we were also a family."

Thea squints, "Harper, we weren't a family." 

Harper slightly flinches back at her brutal honesty, "Were we the best? No. But there was loyalty. You and I both know that."

Thea chuckles, simply shaking her head at her delusions.

"Why are you here?" Harper causes her to go quiet.

"What?" Thea tilts her head.

"Why are you here?" Harper raises a brow, "Nobody travels as far as you did for no reason."

Thea sighs, licking her lips before speaking, "I want to have hope. I want to have hope that although I did an evil thing, an evil thing I will always regret, maybe—just maybe, I can fix it in some way. I want to have hope in us."

Thea couldn't stay angry with Harper. They were both just kids when everything happened, both of them suffered at the hands of their mother, not just Thea.

Harper's eyes soften, she looks down, "We can do that. We can be together again, we can do anything together, Thea."

"Come back with me," Thea eyes gleam with hope, "You can meet my family—"

"Thea..." Harper cuts her off with a frustrated sigh, "I am your family, that's what I've been trying to say."

Thea slowly shakes her head, "I understand you might be hesitant to meet new people but trust me—Carlisle and Esme are very good people, I promise."

"No," Harper concludes. Thea sighs, sitting back in her chair. "We're the only ones we truly got. You can't trust them."

Thea scoffs, "Seriously? It's them I can't trust?"

"Yes." Harper answers with significant confidence, "Families like that fall apart sooner or later."

Thea couldn't help but think about their current situation. Edward leaving. Emmett and Rosalie are gone on their honeymoon after everything went down, and Jasper is stuck in a guilty turmoil.

Were they falling apart?

Then Thea thinks about Alice and suddenly the thought goes away. She looks up at Harper, her head shaking, "Not true."

"Are you sure? Because I can feel anxiety radiating off of you."

Thea couldn't help but wonder, "What are you talking about?"

"Some vampires have special abilities, Thea." Harper chuckles, "I can control other people's anxiety." Thea should've known. Harper, out of all three of them, suffered from anxiety the worst when she was human.

Thea doesn't even reply to those words. "...I shouldn't have come." She goes to leave but Harper grabs her hand.

"Listen just...stay. For a few weeks. You said you wanted to fix things? This is your chance." Harper's eyes linger on Thea's face, seeing her thoughts in her eyes.

"...Fine."

ragerwrites, Any predictions?

wordcount, 1758