chapter nineteen,

, wrapped tightly in a blanket she'd taken from his spare bedroom—the same room she'd slept in while Klaus had been in his body. She had hardly spoken a word since he'd pulled her from her house the day before; since her mother had died and Henrik had sacrificed himself to save her.

To try and keep her mind occupied, Alaric had given her pictures of the drawings on the walls of the cave in the Lockwood cellar he and Damon had found, and asked for her help to decipher them. She'd spent hours simply tracing the runes and symbols, focussing on two in particular: ᚲᛟᛚ and ᛗᚨᚱᛁᚨᚾ.

Earlier in the morning, Elena and Damon had come by, talking about the runes and what they could be. She knew, of course, but felt like she didn't have the energy to tell them. Then, as the start of school got closer, they left, leaving Marian alone. Alaric had given her the TV remote and Damon—who had spent hours searching in the surrounding towns for the right ones—had left a DVD collection with her. She simply refused to watch daytime TV.

The day had been dangerously long, allowing her to relive the moments of yesterday over and over in her mind, only relieved when she was thinking about her past life when her uncles and aunt were still human.

"Hey," Alaric greeted as he walked through the door.

"Hi," Marian mumbled, pausing the film she'd been watching. Out of pure boredom, she'd decided to watch the Twilight series—she'd rather that, than daytime TV.

"How was your day?"

"A lot less eventful than yours, I'm sure," she said.

"I've got homework to keep you occupied." Marian groaned. "Hey, you're the one who told me you wanted to graduate. Do you want to have to repeat the year?" he asked pointedly.

She grumbled angrily at him, regretting telling him that she'd never actually graduated high school before, and she couldn't wait to finally do it. "Any more symbols?" she asked holding her hand out, annoyed.

He walked towards her, dropping a pile of photos onto her lap. He noticed how her eyes lingered on one of the photos he'd given her earlier. It had a series of words on it; of names. "They're your family, right? Klaus, Elijah, Rebekah ..."

"Finn, Kol ..." she continued, rubbing her thumb over her father's name.

"That's him, right?" Ric asked. "Your dad? Kol?" Marian looked up, not answering as he spoke again. "Your name's right under his," he explained. The girl nodded with a weak smile.

"Yeah." She didn't take her eyes off his name. "He is." Marian missed her father terribly. Her heart ached; she hadn't seen him in almost a century.

"And Mikael?" Alaric asked softly.

Marian tensed. "What do you know about Mikael?"

"Just that he knows a way to kill Klaus. And according to this, he's your ... grandfather?" Alaric said, trailing off as he glanced back to the runes on the girl's lap.

"Time's driven him insane," Marian warned. "He won't just kill my family."

Alaric stared blankly at her for a moment. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"He killed my mom," she told him, feeling the pressure of her tears build up. "He killed her to get to me."

"What?"

"He wants to use me to get to Klaus and the others," she said. "I'm the weak link." Marian frowned. "But the centuries of hunting us has made him crazy. Before, he wouldn't even think of hurting a human. Last night he killed—" She stopped, a sob escaping her lips. "And Henrik."

Alaric quickly moved towards her, rubbing her back gently as she cried. Death was a sensitive subject for Marian—he'd known that for a long time. He faltered as he looked back to the photographs.

"Henrik as in the boy who died?" he asked softly.

Marian sniffled, her nose blocked as she nodded. She brought the back of her hand to her nose, rubbing it before she wiped the tears off her hot cheeks. "Yesterday when the veil fell," she began, sniffling again. "He came to me. He sacrificed himself." She said no more, not trusting her own voice.

"Is that who you were yelling for yesterday when I got you?" She nodded again. He went to ask her something more when the pair heard Elena's voice outside the door. She was talking to someone—Marian guessed she was on the phone.

"I'll be right back," he said, moving towards the door and opening it.

"He'll have to get over it. Call me later," Elena said, hanging up on whoever she'd been speaking to. "Rebekah will come around." She frowned immediately.

"What happened to Rebekah?" She wished more than anything to be with her aunt; she'd always known how to calm Marian down when her father wasn't there to do so himself. Rebekah was the one person Marian would choose to be her true mother—Carrie a close second—and she loved her very much.

"You're sure about that? I mean a thousand-year-old vampire, I'm sure, has learned the art of patience." Marian shook her head—it wasn't in Rebekah's nature to be overly patient.

"She's a thousand-year-old vampire, who's joined the cheerleader squad ..." Marian raised her eyebrows, impressed. "There is a whole different set of rules that play here, Ric. I got this."

"Well then, you better get going." Marian was confused. Where was Elena going?

"You're going to see Rebekah?" she called. Elena looked down at her, a pitiful expression on her face. Marian hated it; she thought that Elena of all people would understand how troubling other people's pity could be. "Can I come?"

"You need to stay here and rest," Elena urged. "I'm sure Rebekah will understand." Marian glared at her as she turned back to Alaric."I'll come back when I'm done."

"I'm sure Rebekah will understand," she muttered under her breath angrily as Alaric closed the door. "Who does she think she is?," she complained. "Why can't I go with her? It's not like Rebekah's going to kill me."

"She's just trying to look out for you. You've been through a lot," he explained. "Elena knows what it's like to lose family."

"Yeah, well, Rebekah's my aunt. She should be the one to comfort me," Marian argued. "I want to be with my family."

"Yeah, well it seems they just want to kill each other," he pointed out. The girl looked down. "Bonnie's coming over soon."

"Really?" Marian asked, glad that she'd been able to see her best friend. Bonnie had texted her endlessly after finding out what had happened to her and Carrie. She'd stayed up all night, even trying to calm Marian down over the phone as she had a panic attack.

Bonnie had hurt Marian when she'd been with Jeremy, but Marian was kidding herself if she didn't admit that Bonnie was the best friend she'd had in a long time.

...

"Bonnie! Come on in!" Marian woke with a start. When had she fallen asleep? She rubbed her face, discreetly pulling up the top of her shirt to wipe the small trail of drool off of her face.

"Got your message," Bonnie said, stepping into his apartment.

"Yeah, great!" He looked around. "Uh, I'm sorry the place is such a mess. I'm obsessed ..." Marian noticed that more photographs were scattered across the space, cluttering tables and chairs and covering walls.

Bonnie ignored him, instead walking over towards the couch."Hey," she said warmly, sitting beside Marian who stayed lying down.

"Hey," she said softly. Bonnie quickly hugged her tightly, whispering into her ear.

"I'm so sorry, Annie," she said. Marian closed her eyes, scrunching them up in an effort not to cry. She hated how vulnerable she felt now; she hadn't been so upset in a very long time. "You can come and stay with me any time," Bonnie promised.

"Thanks Bon," said Marian.

"How are you holding up?" Bonnie continued, letting her go.

"Okay, I guess," she answered. "I don't really want to think about it anymore. I'm sick of crying." Bonnie looked down sadly.

"You'll get through this," Bonnie said comfortingly. "I'll be right with you the whole time." She lifted a box from the ground, putting it in front of Marian who moaned in delight.

"I'll take those," Alaric said, swiftly stealing the container from her hands.

"Hey, come on," Marian complained. "At least give me one." Alaric ignored her, setting the container on the kitchen counter.

Bonnie laughed. "You're so weird." The girl rolled her eyes. " Bonnie cleared her throat as she stood up, holding a necklace up to Alaric. Marian noticed it was Elena's one—the one she'd noticed had looked eerily similar to her grandmother's. "I brought you the necklace that wouldn't die."

"Ahh, that's great." He looked at Bonnie happily before looking at the frown on her face. "You okay?"

"Been better ..." she said honestly. A lot had happened recently that had overwhelmed her. Alaric seemed to know something more than Marian knew about what was troubling the witch—which was a lot, given Bonnie had been texting her with updates on the recent town gossip to try and distract her from her grief.

"Listen, Jeremy is an idiot. And I know this with certainty, because I was once a Jeremy. Trust me, we learn ... eventually..." Marian frowned.

"Wait, what happened with Jeremy?" asked the girl. Bonnie looked down at her with a sad smile.

"I broke up with him," she said simply.

"What? Why?" Marian asked sitting up straight. She knew that Bonnie and Jeremy had been in a rough patch, but she didn't realise it was so bad.

"He's been seeing Anna and Vicki this whole time even though he has the power to stop," Bonnie said. "He didn't love me the way I needed him to, and he couldn't admit it to himself."

Marian grabbed her hand, a comforting smile on her face. She couldn't believe that Jeremy would do that to her—Bonnie didn't deserve that kind of treatment. "We don't need him," she told her. "Men are stupid, and boys are stupider."

"Thanks," Alaric muttered, walking away from the pair as they spoke more.

part ii:

tvd s3, e8, ""

wc: