CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
children of the damned

The soft hum of music playing on the radio is what kept Samuel sane as he watched the road. "So where exactly are we going? I feel like I've been driving for hours and we're surrounded by woods".

He tapped his fingers along the steering wheel as he turned his gaze slightly toward Rebekah. "Not trusting my sources? This witch is the one who's been helpful for weeks, the others were frauds and easily disposable when it came to it".

Samuel chuckled slightly "you think I'd not trust you? I'd be an idiot to not trust an original vampire, I wish my sister would ditch the vampires she's hanging with, they're gonna get her killed".

His hold tightened on the steering wheel "I think it's sweet that you're worried for her, I wish my family worried about me that much, but of course they're not exactly kind when it comes to protecting me".

Samuel watched as she rubbed at her chest, he felt a sting in his heart as he bit into his lip slightly. "Is that your family's solution then? Daggering each other until they decide to wake up?".

Rebekah sighed "it's not a lovely experience, you're left forgotten inside a box while the world keeps going, and it can happen at any time. I left the second I could, I'm not going back in that box".

Samuel turned the radio off "you don't have too, maybe you can turn your life around for once, start fresh somewhere, your family can't find you".

Rebekah smiled slightly, it didn't reach her eyes as Samuel turned down a road "I wish it were that easy, but my brothers very insisted on finding me, he's made it very clear, he'll always find me".

She looked outside the window and Samuel looked down at his phone when it went off. Elena's name felt so too see, half the time he ignored it and pretended she didn't exist. This time felt different, knowing what was going on back in mystic falls made him anxious.

He had never felt this way before, he left the town so easily without even a thought about the people he left behind. This time felt different, he was expecting the worst as he looked away from the phone.

Elena wasn't his problem, she could handle whatever mess she got herself into herself. At the end of the day he knew she'd die, even if it wasn't now it would happen one of these days. It was a curse, he watched so many people die at the hands of vampires.

Half the time he wanted to kill them all himself so no one else would suffer. Elena was caught in the crossfire of it all, it would get worse with time if everything caught up to him.

He left town for a reason and now everything was leading back to Elena, the sole reason he left was because of her and now she was in danger again.

Samuel licked his lips nervously, he had normally felt such an intense emotion before but when he was beside Rebekah he felt it so strongly.

He found lying so easy, but when he looked at her he felt like he was stuck. His heart was beating like crazy and he felt his body start to shut down as he turned down another road towards a small house.

"You alright? Your heart is racing like crazy? You can trust me you know, I haven't got any reason to kill you". Samuel kept his eyes on the road and he could feel her eyes melting into his skin as he heard his phone go off again.

"Yeah I'm fine" he sounded so bitter and it annoyed him as he tried to relax his heart. He was so good at keeping himself calm around vampires but this time felt so different, everything was different.

He couldn't tell if he enjoyed it or not, the feeling felt like it was suffocating him as his phone went off again. He blinked slowly as he parked the car outside the house, it was a decent sized home and he could definitely tell a witch owned it.

Rebekah looked at the house "not very secretive but it'll do I suppose". She climbed out of the car and Samuel sighed softly as he grabbed his phone and pushed it into his jacket pocket.

He got out of the car, his gaze looking deeply at the house "kinda looks empty, are you sure someone's here?" He walked towards the gate.

Rebekah chuckled "well it's a witch, they tend to keep themselves hidden from my kind. Think we'll kill them or use them for our personal benefit".

Samuel nodded slightly as he pulled open the gate "well then let's hope this witch doesn't try killing us before we get the answers we need".

He winced slightly as he felt a sharp sting on his arm, he looked down and frowned deeply at the bite mark, "you alright?" he pushed his hand into his pocket.

"It's nothing" he walked up the stairs and knocked on the door weakly. "You reek of blood" Rebekah stood beside him, her eyes looking up at him with worry.

"You almost sound worried" he joked as he knocked on the door again and then the pain returned. He flinched slightly at the suddenness of pain that hit his neck, he pressed his finger on his skin.

He felt the bite mark ripping itself open and Rebekah looked angrily at the doorway "it's the witch!". She kicked open the door and Samuel let out a shaky breath as he pulled his jacket off.

He looked down at his arms seeing a bunch of bite marks appear on the flesh. He looked up and his eyes turned cold "it's you... of course it's you".

He moved back slightly and then the pain increased as he felt a throb in his head, he groaned as he fell to his knees and gripped his head. "What are you doing to him!" Rebekah sneered angrily as she ran towards the witch "you're meant to help us!".

Samuel inhaled sharply as he felt blood run down his nose "he will be dealt with, stepping inside my property will be the last thing he does if he knows what's good for him!". Samuel didn't flinch when the witches head was ripped off, he felt the warmth of the blood soaking into his shirt as he let out a breath.

He coughed slightly as he felt the pain fade away, he hunched into himself as he groaned. Rebekah ran towards him "what the hell was that about?" he looked up at her weakly. "I sorta killed her husband like ten months ago.... It's not my fault the guy tried ripping my throat open, I didn't know she was a witch, no wonder this place looked familiar".

Rebekah sighed "so much for answers, suppose I'll have to find another witch then". Samuel winced as he stood up "guess that means I won't see you again for awhile then? You're always disappearing on me".

Rebekah looked at him in silence for a moment as he looked at the body of the witch behind her. "Finding answers isn't easy, not a lot of witches have heard of what we share. They claim I've gone mad when I ask questions concerning it".

Samuel looked exhausted as he looked down at his arms and the bite marks were still visible. "It's a shame you can't stick around, then again I'm not exactly fit to go with you in finding witches. Clearly they're out for blood when they see me".

He looked down at Rebekah when she walked towards him, her hands gripped his arms. He shivered when her fingers ran along the wounds, "why make yourself suffer? By helping vampires?".

"There's nothing else for me to do" she looked up at him "surely there's plenty of options for you". He didn't sense her distress as he watched her closely, she was such a hard person to figure out.

"It's the only thing that helps me feel alive, it's better than being alone". Rebekah looked down in shame for a moment "but you're not alone anymore".

He blinked slightly as she looked back up at him, he touched her cheek when he noticed the sadness in her eyes. "Why does this make you so... upset?" he felt the feeling in his chest increase.

"Doesn't it make you upset? Knowing you're punishing yourself? You don't have to be alone, you don't have to help vampires, they will get you killed".

"I've been doing this for years, I think if they wanted me dead they would've done it by now. And there's nothing wrong with being alone, I'm used to it and besides people get in the way".

Rebekah chuckled "humans can be a tad bit dramatic at difficult times, but you're not such bad company". Samuel smiled softly "I'll take that as a compliment and pretend you didn't refer to me as human".

He turned and made his way towards the car "you technically are human, but you're not like most, you're different". He unlocked the car and grabbed his phone out of his pocket "hopefully a good difference".

He frowned deeply as he looked at his phone "what's wrong?" he let out a heavy breath. "I can't leave town for one day without something happening, apparently my sister went and got herself kidnapped. Looks like this little road trip is at an end".

He looked annoyed as he got into the car and started the engine "is it those vampires you've mentioned before? The ones she's got involved with?".

Samuel sighed "I know she can take care of herself but she's gonna get herself killed if she keeps trusting them. There's things she doesn't know and I can't keep them away from her forever, she'll find out eventually and it'll mean very bad things will happen. Things I can't stop".

Rebekah grabbed a hold of Samuels hand and he looked at her "you being here means it's only a matter of time before he finds her, she was supposed to be safe once I left town... I should've just stayed away".

Rebekah frowned deeply "before who finds her? Samuel, what are you not telling me? You've been rather jumpy ever since we left town".

He gripped the steering wheel "I can't tell you, it'll only make things worse if you knew. Just know I'll handle it when it comes to it". He felt a sense of panic slip into his bones when Rebekah gripped his hand more, "Samuel you can tell me, it can't be that bad".

She smiled and he could tell she was trying to make him feel better, it wasn't working that well. "Just forget I said anything, I'll tell you when I'm ready but for right now it's not important. I need to get back to mystic falls and help my sister".

"Okay, just this once I'll trust you but if you don't tell me it's only a matter of time before I figure it out". Samuel let out a sigh as he looked at his phone, Elena being taken wasn't something he expected to happen while he left for a few hours.

Those Salvatore's were getting her dragged into things she wasn't supposed to be a part of and he knew at the end of the day. This wouldn't end well for anyone.

—
authors notes:
Writing this was not easy.... Only a little bit of inspiration hit for me to actually write for tvdu. It's just not a vibe anymore but I don't wanna give up on my stories because I know people enjoy them, so for the most part I'll write when inspiration hits, even if it's for a little bit and not long. I was so tempted to draft all my tvd fics the other day but I stopped myself for the sake of people who actually read them. Anyways it's late and I'm exhausted... enjoy this late update, my update schedule is a mess currently but I'm trying my best to fix it lol.