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𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 - 𝐂𝐡. 05
"𝒎𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒆"

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— SKYLER CAUTIOUSLY MOVED AROUND THE CORNER,
her eyes surveying the area as though something — anything — would jump out and get her, she had been avoiding coming out of her room this morning once she realized that both her brothers were here and downstairs - waiting, she thought, waiting for her? She wasn't sure. She didn't want to find out.

"Why are you being so secretive?" A voice called down to her from the end of the hallway which made her jump, her eyes widening as they met Stefan, his eyes narrowed in suspicion and confusion.

"I'm not being secretive." She mumbled, moving around him into the living room where Damon sat on one of the chairs, a drink in hand.

Damon looked at her and arched a brow, "yes you are, we can both see it. Ever since you came back, you've been different."

Skyler narrowed her eyes at him, "I was gone for over a hundred years, sorry if I've changed a bit."

Stefan shook his head as he came to stand beside Damon, a united force only for their sister, "It's not just that. I know you, we know you, Skyler. This isn't like you."

"Maybe you don't."

Stefan seemed confused. "What?"

Skyler shifted on her feet, "Maybe you don't know me." She looked away as she quietly added, "Not anymore."

"You're our sister." Stefan argued, as though that meant he would always know her, even after so long apart. Perhaps it did. In a way, her brothers would always know her, they shared a story, but her story had a spin off, one that they had no part in, no knowledge of. And that changed things.

Damon looked at her, studying her, and then after a moment of tense silence between the siblings, he spoke, "You're right. A lot has changed, we don't know you as well as we used to." Because they still knew her, just not as well. "But we want to. Tell us what happened."

Everything, she thought but didn't say. Because that would mean explaining how she got married, how she found a new family, how she found her soulmate — her everything.

"It was a hundred years. Things changed."

"Like what?" Stefan asked, she couldn't answer.

"I changed." She finally resolved to say.

Damon shook his head, "Come on, Skyler." He nearly pleaded, give us something, anything, to explain how you've changed so.

Skyler only shook her head and turned away from them, making her way into the kitchen as her brothers watched. They glanced at each other, wondering what to say or do.

"Skyler..." Stefan called.

"I don't know what you want me to say." She snapped and turned back to him, "You killed Hadrian, and I left. It was a hundred years. I changed, and clearly so have you two."

Stefan stepped back, as though punched by her words. Of course his dark past being brought up would always hurt, more so when it reminded him of how much he hurt her.

"Hadrian." Damon said as though realizing something, "Is that what this is all about? Your poor old lover boy?"

Skyler glared at him, a hurt she had ignored, a hurt she'd thought she'd moved on from, resurfaced as her eyes turned stone cold and filled with a hundred year old rage and pain, "He was my fiancé, my best friend. And Stefan killed him." Tears brimmed in her eyes, she barely held them back. "And no this isn't what it's about. That's not why I've changed, not really. I've changed because I had to, and neither of you were there."

"Skyler I-" Stefan cut himself off, what could he say? That he didn't know, that he's sorry? None of it would be good enough, they all knew that. The time for apologies had long since passed, it was too late. Hadrian was gone, and it felt like a part of their sister was too.

Before either of the brothers could find something to say, a knock at the door interrupted the moment shared between the Salvatore siblings. Skyler huffed and turned away, "of course it's her." She said as Damon opened the door for Elena.

"Skyler." Stefan hissed, the guilt from the past being forgotten.

She only rolled her eyes, brushing away a tear that had fallen before Elena came in, "just try not to let her kill you this time, brother."

Without another word, she brushed past her twin, their shoulders bumping as she glared at Elena and made her way upstairs as the doppelgänger spoke, "I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"

"No." Stefan responded instantly, glancing at the stairs as his sister disappeared up them.

"Just a sibling spat." Damon told her with a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Elena nodded in understanding, but looked at Stefan in concern. It didn't seem like the regular sibling spat she was used to.

"Yeah that's all." Stefan smiled, comforting her, maybe he was just worried about his sister, that she could understand, "Cmon. Let's go." Putting an arm around her shoulder, the couple made their way out of the Salvatore house as Damon rolled his eyes.

"Goodbye love birds." He mocked sarcastically before he sat down with his bourbon.

He swirled it around a bit, and looked up the stairs, as if he would find Skyler stood there waiting for him, like she would after an argument with their father. She wasn't. Gone was the little girl he called his baby sister, in her place was someone he didn't quite know. And it settled upon him that she really had changed.

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Bitterness settled in Skyler as she watched Stefan leave with Elena. Just like a hundred years ago, she was losing him again. This time, she decided she would leave first when the time came. She wouldn't stick around to see this doppelgänger be the death of her brothers. She couldn't.

Her phone beeped, offering sanctuary in the form of a message from Kol.

She picked her phone quickly, desperate for a distraction. She opened the notification to find a picture of Kol stood outside a large house surrounded by woods that seemed eerily familiar, as though she'd seen it somewhere before.

A second later, a message came through.

Kol
Guess where I am?
Our new house, right outside Mystic Falls.

Skyler
Really?

Kol
Don't worry you don't have to say it
I know I'm the best

Skyler chuckled, a grin on her face. She looked out one of her bedroom windows, out into the woods as though she'd be able to see the house and Kol. She could find them, if she wanted. She would always have a way of finding Kol. But something made her hesitate.

Her phone went off again, another message — this one from Klaus. He sent the address and told her to come tomorrow. Restlessly, Skyler responded as she clung to phone as though it was her lifeline, because at this moment it was.

She looked out the window into the woods once more. She couldn't wait for tomorrow.

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