CHAPTER FIVE | WE ALL GO A LITTLE MAD SOMETIMES

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THE TRIP TO ITALY FOR BUSINESS AND A LITTLE PLEASURE WAS NOW UTTERLY POINTLESS SINCE ELENA HAD KILLED CONNOR JORDAN. Of course, they had managed to find the sword, thanks to Klaus' array of Hybrids at his disposal, but without Connor's completed tattoo, it was just a sword. It was evident that Klaus was annoyed— more than annoyed— he was pissed. But, if Eden were being honest, she didn't care that he was upset. The only thing she was worried about was that her sister had taken her first human life. The guilt ways heavy, Eden knew the feeling all too well. She remembered the first life she took, the way she felt during and how disgusting she felt after. It was not a feeling she wanted Elena to experience, but, given vampirism, it was inevitable. 

To top it all of, Klaus had told Eden the tale of what happens when you kill a member of the Brotherhood of the Five. If a vampire managed to kill a hunter, then the vampire responsible would suffer hallucinations, as such. The hallucinations would become worse and worse until the vampire had only one option— kill themselves. 

Klaus had a plan to ensure that Elena wouldn't be a danger to herself. The plan was concerning, to say the least. "You know they're not gonna agree to this, right?" Eden looked toward Klaus as they pulled up outside her childhood home. 

"The way I see it, lovely, they don't really have any other options. She will become a danger to herself. The hallucinations will become to strong that Elena won't be able to see any other way out. She will kill herself." 

"Fine." Eden shrugged. She had finally gotten out of the passenger side of Klaus' Range Rover and slammed the door shut as they strolled toward her house. "But, let me do the talking. You'll only antagonise them."

Almost as soon as Eden and Klaus stepped onto the front porch, the door opened to reveal a concerned looking Stefan Salvatore. "Nice to see you could show up for your sister." Stefan deadpanned, his attention moving to Klaus. "Is he really necessary?"

"I think you'll find he is the answer to your problems, so I'd be nice if I were you, Stefan." 

Eden rolled her eyes at Klaus' sudden need to bite back at Stefan's comment. She sighed, and frustratedly rubbed her forehead. "Look, I know about the hallucinations, okay? Stefan, she needs to come with us or Connor's gonna make her his final vampire kill."

Stefan scoffed quietly. "She's not going anywhere. Least of all with Klaus."

"If we leave her alone, she'll take her own life before the day is out." The Hybrid answered back in a dull tone. But, the thought of it made Eden feel sick. The thought of losing Elena made her physically sick. "Believe me, it's for her own good."

"No." The Salvatore took a breath and shook his head again. "Eden, you can't be serious. I'm not— Elena's not going anywhere. I'm gonna protect her."

"Protect her?" The Gilbert girl blinked in sheer disbelief. "Stefan, do you serious think I'm going to entertain this right now? If there is a way that I can protect my sister, then it's happening. I don't care if it bruises your ego, but you are useless against this."

Suddenly, the front door thrust open and Elena ran out onto the front porch. Her eyes widened in shock as she came face to face with her twin sister, Klaus and Stefan. "Eden?" Elena whispered softly with a look of relief amongst the terror. A grunt left Klaus' lips as he gripped hold of Elena and sped away with her, Eden immediately following after.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Let go of me!" Elena thrashed against Eden's grip as they moved inside one of the basement rooms at Klaus' mansion. Eden shoved her inside, letting the vampire stumble into the room. It had everything Elena could possibly want. Gorgeous art, a large bed in the centre of the room, comfortable chairs and dozens of books. 

"Believe it or not, I'm actually looking out for you." Eden told her sister with a sigh as she shut the door to the basement and dropped down onto one of the couches. "Oh! Before you ask, you're in the basement because there's no windows. There's no windows because the chance of you taking off your daylight ring is highly likely."

Elena furrowed her brows together and shot her sister a look. "I'm not gonna kill myself. I would never do that."

"Not knowingly, perhaps." The doppelgänger shrugged. "But, this is only gonna end one way, Elena. These visions of Connor, the hunter you killed, they're gonna get worse and worse until the only way out you've got is to end your life."

"Klaus knew that this would happen if Connor died. That's why he got involved." Elena whispered quietly under her breath before she looked up to her twin. "Did Stefan know, too?"

"One thing about Klaus is that he keeps his cards close to his chest. My guess is that he only told Stefan what was necessary, so, no. I don't think Stefan knew about this." 

"How do we get this to stop, Eden?" Elena weakly asked again.

That was the thing. There was no active way they knew to make it stop, and she dreaded telling her sister that. "Uh— right now, there isn't one." She watched the look of hopelessness fall onto Elena's face.

Elena huffed irritably and dropped down onto one of the chairs, opposite Eden. "Just, please. Go away."

"Look, I know you're struggling with this. But, you're not gonna wanna push me away." Eden heavily sighed as she lifted herself up from the chair. "You know, what? It's very fitting— you rotting away down here. I mean, the way you looked at me when became a vampire. The way you looked down your nose at me. Like I was some sort of disgusting monster. And, look at you! You're the same as me. Maybe even worse. " 

Tears began to brim in Elena's eyes as she pulled her knees up to her chest and started to rock back and forth slowly. "Shut up." She snapped.

"Or not." Eden chuckled. "The way everyone used to rally around you. Sweet, innocent, Elena Gilbert— the girl that would trap spiders in glasses and let them out in the garden because you were so scared of hurting something. It's a joke, really, isn't it? I bet, if you think real hard, you can still hear the snap of Connor's neck."

 "I made a mistake, I know! I can— I can be better, Eden. I never meant for any of this to happen."

"You never do, do you?! You can never take responsibility for your own actions. Everyone tiptoes around you like you're some sort of damsel in distress, but let me tell you something, Elena, you're a liability."

"No!" Elena suddenly found her feet and stood between her and Eden. She hurled her entire body at her sister, attempting to tackle her to the floor but Eden wasn't even there. When Elena looked around, she was completely and utterly alone.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Eden had a hard time dealing with the fact that Elena was confined to the basement room below them, and so Klaus had offered to take her for a drink to take her mind off of it. The two had their own booth in the Grill and a bottle of scotch to share between them. 

"Hm..." Eden spoke up from the silence as she watched his gaze move to her. "You know a drink isn't going to take my mind off of the fact that my sister is supernaturally suicidal now, right?"

"I'm under no illusion of that. However, I had assumed that removing you from the place she currently is might ease your conscience just a little." Klaus leaned his head on his hand and smiled at her. "And, perhaps I simply wanted to indulge in a drink with my girlfriend, is that a crime?"

"Girlfriend?" Eden chuckled softly. He looked almost hurt at the fact his use of the word had made her laugh. "No! No, oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at that. I was laughing at you using the word girlfriend. I was expecting you to say, my womanly companion or something. You know, given you're so old..."

He raised his eyebrow and let his mouth gape open in disbelief. "Oh, Eden. You're lucky I'm fond of you, because that comment alone would've made me yank out your intestines from your throat."

"You realise this isn't great date chat, right?" The Gilbert retorted again.

"Sod off." Klaus playfully clapped back just as Caroline Forbes strolled straight into the Grill and over to the couple. She gave them a soft smile before she took a seat beside Eden. Klaus frowned, irritably. "Help yourself, love." 

"Sorry to crash this display of affection, but Eden, I wanted to speak to you." Caroline tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and shot Eden an innocent smile. 

"About?"

"Elena." As the name left her lips, a quiet sigh of irritation left both Eden and Klaus' lips. "It's just— I wanted to come to you about it. Eden, I know that you only want what's best for her, but is keeping her captive really the best option?"

"It's the only option." Klaus' voice was stern as he answered before Eden even had the chance. "Unless you would rather sweet, innocent Elena Gilbert burn herself to a crisp by morning?"

Eden winced at Klaus' insensitivity and then sighed. "I know it's not the most ideal scenario, Care. But, she's not safe anywhere but where she is right now." 

The blonde suddenly looked down at her phone and let a soft sigh escape her lips as she read a text. She then plastered an anxious smile across her face. "So, here's the thing... I didn't just come here to try and get you to release Elena."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "You don't say." 

 "I came here to distract you both so that Stefan could go to your house and break her out." As she spoke, both Eden and Klaus' faces fell. "Which, he did. And, now, it's important that neither of you get mad. But, he lost her."

"Caroline, you have five seconds to get the hell out of this Grill right now otherwise I will snap your neck." Eden gritted her teeth and shoved Caroline out of the booth so she and Klaus could leave.

"They figured out how to stop the hallucinations!" Caroline yelled again and the couple halted in their tracks. 

"Tell me, now."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Jeremy was the key to stopping Elena's hallucinations. He was one of the Five, and so he needed to take Connor's place which meant the young boy had to keep numerous vampires until the tattoo grow. Klaus had decided to deal with that, promising Eden he would keep Jeremy from harm, while she desperately wanted to track down her sister. Elena was at the point of vulnerable where not even Stefan could reason with her and Eden feared for her state of mind now that the hallucinations had clearly taken over more. 

"Elena!" Eden yelled. She had seen her sister standing on the edge of Wickery Bridge holding out in front of her, over the clearing of the bridge. As she stepped closer, she knew what it was. Elena had removed her daylight ring. "Elena, please, don't."

"Stay away from me!" The delirious doppelgänger spat back. She didn't shake her vision away from the water. "I'm doing what you wanted, I'm doing what you said!"

She dropped her daylight ring into the water and sighed with a look of relief on her face. Elena finally turned to face Eden as she started to cry. "I'm sorry. Mommy, I didn't mean to disappoint you."

Eden blinked, a sympathetic look on her face. "Oh, Elena. Elena, it's me."

Elena's face fell as the realisation hit her. She wasn't talking to her mother, and it was in fact Eden. "How— how did you find me?"

"This is where I'd come, too."

"Damon was right, Eden. Vampires kill people. Stefan was right, too." She blankly spoke, turning her gaze back to the horizon. "I can't live with myself."

Eden started to panic as she saw the sun slowly beginning to rise in the distance. "Come on, we need to get out of here." Elena didn't seem to move. "This isn't real, Elena. It's a curse— Connor was cursed, but we know how to break it. But, just—"

Eden lunged at Elena in an attempt to grab her and take her away from the sunlight, but Elena sped out of the way. "—No!" She roared. "You don't get it, Eden. I can't do this anymore! I can't be a—" A gasp left Elena's lips and suddenly she looked around in panic. "He's— he's gone."

"They did it. Oh, my God. They did it." Eden sighed in relief. But, in that moment of sheer relief and bliss, the pair had forgotten that the sun was rising and Elena was without a daylight ring. 

Eden looked to her sister as her skin had started to bubble and blister. She only had one option— she grabbed hold of Elena and the pair jumped straight into the water below.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───