Chapter Thirty-Four-You Make Me Feel Human (also known as...OH EM GEE, KIRA ACTUALLY POSTED!?)

“How long ‘till we get there!” Tegan whined, fidgeting in her seat. Alec rolled his eyes.

“About five more hours.” He said. Jade groaned.

“Can we drop her off in Virginia, and maybe just leave her and never come back for her?” she asked.

“Hey!” Tegan frowned.

“Guys, shut up! Can’t you see I’m trying to drive here!?” Alec snapped. The entire car was filled with silence.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Well you’re in a mood.” Said Jade. \

“Yeah, and I have a reason to be!”

“Why, because your girlfriend stabbed you with vervain, threw you into a bush and ran away with our only vehicle?”Tegan asked.

“Hmm, yeah, that might have something to do with it.”

“Tegan, you should probably shut up now.” Jade said.

“Fine.” Tegan grumbled.

“Remind me again why we’re still going to Florida and not trying to find Kieyra?” Jade asked.

“Because…” Alec trailed off. He didn’t really have a straight answer to her question. He didn’t even know the answer.

“Because…well…”

“Because Kieyra told you to?” Tegan asked.

“I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut!” Jade snapped.

“No, she’s right.”Alec sighed.

“Tegan’s right?” Jade asked, giving Tegan a surprised look. Tegan smiled.

“Really?” Tegan asked.

“Wow. That’s a first.” Said Ryan. Even Elena, who barely knew Tegan, was dumbfounded.

“Thanks guys.” Tegan said sarcastically, frowning.

“Well, it’s true. You’re rarely right about anything.” Sam said. Everyone else (except Tegan) nodded in agreement.

“You guys suck.”

                                     

“How much longer ‘till we get there?” I asked. It was getting later, around 7 o’ clock now, and we had been driving nonstop for hours.

“Not much longer.” Katherine said. “We’re in Florida already, we just need to get to Orlando.”

“Okay.” It had been a long, silent car ride ever since I brought up Katherine’s sister. This was the first time I’d spoken in hours. We passed a few signs advertising Disneyland, and even though it was the least of my problems, I was mad that my parents never took me there.

“I wanna go to Disneyland.” I said. Katherine laughed.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Fine then. I promise, after all this is over, we’ll go to Disneyland.” Katherine said.

“Yay!” I exclaimed, doing a mini-happy-dance.

“You know, you’re quite the kid.” She laughed.

“I know. I’m the best doppelganger ever.” I smiled.

“Totally.” She said.

About an hour later, we were in downtown Orlando, five minutes away from the “safe” house. I was nervous as hell. We stopped in front of a small brick house at the edge of the city.

“Wait in the car for a second.” Katherine said, getting out of the car and crossing to the other side of the street. She returned shortly with a little girl wearing a girl scout uniform.

“This is Rebecca. Rebecca is selling girl scout cookies. Rebecca is our way of getting in to the safe house.” I narrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

“How is a little girl going to help us get into the safe house?”

“Simple. She has an extra girl scout sash we can put on you, and you’re going to pretend that you’re her big sister. Capiche?”
“Okay…but what if they recognize me?” Katherine handed me a pair of sunglasses.

“Wear these. If they can’t see your eyes, they might not recognize you.”  I nodded and put the sunglasses on. Rebecca looked at me nervously.

“What’s going on?” She asked, with a shaky voice.

“It’s okay, sweetie, no one’s going to hurt you.” Katherine said in a reassuring voice. Rebecca looked over to me.

“She’s telling the truth. Well, at least she better be.” I said, glaring at Katherine, who rolled her eyes at me.

“Fine, fine. Just get on with it. Remember, you have to get invited in. If you don’t, this entire little mission will have been pointless.”

“Yes, Katherine.” I sighed. Rebecca and I walked towards the small house and knocked on the door. The man who answered was tall, with light brown hair and dark eyes. He was kind of intimidating.

“Would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies?” Rebecca asked sweetly.

“No, sorry kids.”

“Um, sorry to bother you, but if it’s okay, could I come in and use your bathroom? It’s really kind of urgent…” I said in a childish voice.

“Ugh, fine, but make it quick. It’s at the end of the hallway, first door on the left.”

“Thank you!” I ran in and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I sat on the floor and hugged my knees as I heard three very different screams, followed by a knock at the bathroom door.

“Who is it?”

“Miley Cyrus.” Katherine said sarcastically from the other side of the door.

“If you’re Miley Cyrus, you have to say y’all after everything you say.” I said. Katherine sighed.

“Do I really have to?”

“Yep.”

“Ugh, fine. I’m Miley Cyrus, y’all!” She said in a southern accent.

“That’s better.” I unlocked and opened the door. In the hallway, there were now three dead bodies.

“What happened to Rebecca?” I asked.

“I compelled her to forget everything and she went home.”

“And you killed all three of them in less than a minute?”

“Yes.”

“So…what do we do now?”

“Well…I guess we could go to a hotel…or Disneyland…” As tempting as those ideas were, the guilt of betraying her was eating away at me. I had to say something.

“There’s…actually something I wanted to talk to you about.” Katherine gave me a confused look.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, well…I know that you’re planning on letting Alec die. But…why? What did he ever do to you?”

“You’re not supposed to know that.” Katherine snapped.

“I’m not a stupid little kid anymore, Katherine.”

“Well I’ve made up my mind, and there’s nothing you can do about it, Kieyra.”

“Fine then. Let him die. And then you can live the rest of your life feeling my pain. Now, what did he ever do to you?”

“Nothing...” Katherine sighed. “I guess I’m just jealous that he loves you and not me, after all we’ve been through.” I burst out laughing.

“You? Jealous?”

“Shut up or I’ll rip your heart out!”

“Oh please, I’m not scared of you.” I was still laughing for another five minutes. I laughed until it hurt. Katherine, however, was not so impressed.

“You’re unbelievable. You know that, right?” She said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m almost done , so let me have my fun.” Katherine rolled her eyes.

“You have fifteen seconds. Fourteen. Thirteen.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop.” It took me a minute to collect myself. Just as I stopped laughing, there was a knock at the door. I froze.

“Who do you think it is?” I whispered. Katherine shrugged.

“Go hide behind the couch. I’ll go see.” I nodded and was quiet as I struggled to squeeze behind the smelly couch. Katherine slowly made her way over to the door and looked through the peephole. Then she sighed.

“Lover boy and company are here.” I jumped out from behind the couch as quickly as I could and just as the door swung open I ran straight into Alec’s arms. I didn’t care if he was mad at me or not.

“I’m so sorry!” I cried. Was I honestly crying? I didn’t care.

“It’s okay. You’re forgiven.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“I missed you so much.” I sniffed.

“I missed you too.” He admitted.

“Ahem.” Jade cleared her throat loudly behind Alec.

“Sorry.” I said, letting go of Alec and hugging Jade.

“Well, that’s better. But really, I should have gotten the first hug. I mean, we’ve been friends way longer than you two have been dating.”

“Two days.” I corrected, rolling my eyes.

“Whatever.” Tegan and Elena joined what was now a group hug.

“So…what do we do now?” Sam asked, standing awkwardly with Ryan outside. Katherine shrugged.

“Kieyra wanted to go to Disneyland.” She said. Elena’s face lit up.

“We totally should go to Disneyland!” she exclaimed.

“I wanna go on the It’s a Small World ride!” Tegan said. Alec smiled.

“So we’re going to Disneyland?” He asked.

“I guess so.” Said Katherine, sighing.

“When should we go?” he asked. I yawned.

“Tomorrow morning. We could probably just stay here for the night, as long as one of us stays awake to keep watch.”  I said.

“I’ll do it.” Katherine said. “Anything to get me out of…quality time with Kieyra’s friends.” I rolled my eyes.

“They’re not that bad.” I defended.

“Whatever you say.” She said.

We looked around and found out that there were four beds in the entire house. The sleeping arrangements so far were as follows: Sam and Ryan, Jade  and Elena, and Teagan alone, since no one wanted to share a bed with her (due to the fact that she kicks in her sleep, snores, and drools). Which left...me and Alec.

Oh god.

“Katherine, are you sure you want to keep watch?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes. One hundred percent.” Katherine said, sighing.

“Oh. Okay.” My heart raced nervously. Kill me. Kill me now. I felt someone tap on my shoulder and I spun around. Alec. Crap.

“Maybe I should help Katherine keep watch. I mean, I wouldn’t want her to be alone all night.” I suggested. Alec rolled his eyes.

“That’s a BS excuse for our sleeping arrangement, Kieyra.”

“It is not!” I lied.

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it’s not!”

“You’re such a liar.” He smirked.

“Shut up.” I growled.

“Am I really that bad?”

“Well…no…but-”

“But what?” He asked.

“You’re…you. And you make me nervous.” He laughed.

“How so?”

“I don’t know! If I knew, we wouldn’t be in this situation, now would we?” He laughed and picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder.

"Alec! Put me down!" I yelled.

"Nope." he carried me upstairs to our designated bedroom as I pounded on his back with my fists and begged for my release.

"PUT ME DOWN NOW OR I SWEAR, I WILL-"

"You will what?"

"Um...I didn't think it out that far exactly."

"That's what I thought." He dropped me onto a bed, and since I was dizzy from all the blood that rushed to my head while I was upside-down, it took me a minute before I could see straight.

"I think I just lost, like, 7 IQ points from that." I said. Alec smiled. 

"So we're at negative seven now?"

"I'm not that stupid."

"Okay, whatever stops the tears..."

"Hey! You're mean!"

"But you love me." he said, a smug expression on his face.

"Don't be so smug." I said, standing up. He locked his arms around my waist, looking at me with that weird eye thing he does that makes me nervous.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked.

"I dunno." he said, smiling.

"Stop it." I said.

"Stop what?" He said, pulling me closer.

"You're teasing me." I frowned.

"Yes. And?"

"I don't like it."

"Oh, please, you love it."

"You know what i'd love more?"

"What?"

"IF YOU'D SHUT UP AND KISS ME!" I yelled.

"I told you, I-"

"Don't you give me that BS excuse again! I'm sick of it! You know, you make me so freaking mad sometimes! If you really don't want to kiss me just tell me, because this is starting to really bug me, and i'm starting to feel like there's something wrong with me, or my face, or-" I was immediately silenced when, out of nowhere, Alec crushed his lips against mine. Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Not Damien, not the sacrifice, not even the fact that I was miles from home in a strange house alone with my best friends, my best friend's sister, two guys I barely knew, my ancestor, and the boy I loved. It was like the world around us no longer existed.

"I love you. Don't ever forget it." He whispered, smiling. I smiled as he leaned in to kiss me again.

After about ten more minutes of gushy, cheesy romantic crap that no one wants to hear about, I went downstairs, changed into a pair of pyjama shorts and a t-shirt, and went back upstairs. Alec was lying in bed, pretending to be asleep. I crawled under the blanket and poked his face.

"Hmm." he didn't move.

"Don't you "hmm" me. I know you're awake." I said.

"Hmm." he repeated.

"Wake up, sleepyhead." I ruffled his hair.

"Don't touch my hair." he said, opening his eyes. I smiled.

"I have a question." He said.

"What?"

"Why did you come back for me? "

"Because I love you. Why else?"

"Well...you stabbed me with vervain and left with Katherine in your dad's van. I just thought...maybe you just came back for yourself. To kill my friends to stop whatever you thought they were going to do to you-which is something I still don't understand."

"You thought i'd be like Katherine?" He nodded

"I wouldn't do that. By the way, she wants to kill you because she's jealous of us." Alec looked at me confusedly.

"What!?"

"Yeah, she was trying to hide me away so that you would die instead of us killing Damien. Which reminds me, we really have to go back and kill him." Alec smiled.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea." I laughed.

"You wanna know something?"he asked.

"What?"

"There's a lot of things that we have that Katherine and I never had together, but...there is one thing we have that never could have happened between me and her."

"Oh? What's that?"

"The way you make me feel." I looked at him confusedly.

"What do you mean?" He smiled.

"You make me feel...human."

"Explain."

"Like, when I'm with you, you make me feel like, for once in my life, I can be a normal teenager. I've never really felt that way before. I like it." I smiled, then yawned.

"I'm tired." I said.

"I noticed." Alec chuckled. I turned over, but Alec wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to him.

"Goodnight." He whispered, "I love you."

"I love you too." I said, but since I was already half asleep, it came out like "i luff yuh tuh." And then, before I knew it, I was asleep.

Chapter 33-Secrets, Secrets, and...Guess What? More Secrets!

"Are you guys sure you want to leave?" Annalyn asked, as we were loading our things back into the van.


"Yeah, Annie, we are." Katherine said.


"Why the sudden change?" Katherine shrugged.


"I don't know. Something changed my mind, I guess." I was guessing that she felt my uneasiness around Annalyn. Katherine shot me a "you owe me" look. I mouthed "thank you" and kept loading the truck. Annalyn had supplied us with a few days worth of blood bags, and about fifty dollars cash, just in case we needed it.


"Thanks, Annalyn. It was nice meeting you." I lied, forcing a smile.


"It was nice to meet you too, kid. Bye guys!" Annalyn gave Katherine one last hug before she headed back in the house and Katherine hopped into the front seat of the van.





Once we were far enough away from Annalyn's house, Katherine pulled off to the side of the road.





"Okay, what is it with you and Annalyn?" she asked.


"It's just...I'm getting a bad vibe from her. I feel like she shouldn't be trusted." I said. Katherine nodded.


"Yeah, me too. I felt like she'd...changed...since I'd last seen her."


"How so?"


"She was...different. On edge. Like she was trying to hide something. That's pretty much the main reason I agreed to leave so easily."


"I noticed it too." I said. After that was a six hour long awkward silence. We passed through several different states before finally stopping in a small town in Virginia.





"Why are we stopping here?" I asked.


"I have a friend here." I rolled my eyes.


"Yeah, and you had a friend in New York. And she gave me the creeps."


"This one's different. She's...not like Annalyn. She's never worked for Damien. She has no reason to betray me. Now stay in the car." I stayed in the car while Katherine got out and went into a small white house. Soon after, she returned with a small read-headed girl who looked about Sarah's age.


"Kieyra, this is my friend Maia. She's a vamp-witch, like the Wilkins'." Her blue eyes seemed lost. I smiled and waved at Maia.


"It's nice to meet you." I said. Maia smiled.


"So you're the doppelganger I've been hearing about. Katherine was right, you two do look almost exactly alike."


"Yeah, but don't be fooled. I'm nothing like her."


"I wouldn't be so sure about that. How you fooled Alec was...classic Katherine." Maia laughed. I smiled.


"So, I took a page out of the Katerina Petrova playbook. It had to be done." I shrugged.


"I like you." Maia said, still laughing her silent laugh. Katherine rolled her eyes.


"Come on, we can get to know each other later. Let's just go inside." Katherine pulled my arm and dragged me towards the house. She seemed jealous of the fact that Maia and I were getting along so well.





This house was nice, in better shape than Annalyn's. The walls had flowery wallpaper, and everything in the house was bright and colorful, filled with greens, yellows, whites and blues. In the kitchen, there was a little blonde girl sitting at the table, messily coloring a flower in a coloring book.


"Who's this?" I asked. The little girl looked at me and smiled.


"This is my niece, Ellie. I'm taking care of her for the week." Maia said.


"I'm coloring a flower!" Ellie exclaimed. Maia laughed.


"You sure are, kiddo."


"Hey, Maia, can I talk to you for a second?" Katherine asked.


"Yeah, sure...um...If it's not too much to ask, Kieyra, could you watch Ellie for me? I don't want her to get into anything while I'm gone, and my brother would kill me if anything happened to his little angel."


"Of course." I said. Maia left with Katherine. As I watched Ellie quietly coloring her pictures, I tuned into Katherine and Maia's conversation.


"How long 'till Caroline gets back?" Katherine asked.


"Tomorrow morning, at the latest."


"Then we'll leave shortly." Maia sighed.


"Kat, she's your sister. You'll have to talk to her eventually. Sooner or later, she'll find out you're not still in the tomb."


"I choose later."


"Katherine-"


"This conversation is over." Katherine walked back into the kitchen.


"Come on Kieyra, we're leaving." Without questioning anything, I followed Katherine out to the van.


"You never told me you had a sister." I said.


"Ah, five points to the eavesdropper." Said Katherine.


"Why didn't you ever say anything?"


"Because, my sister and I haven't talked since before I was banished from Bulgaria, and she hates me. She was turned into a vampire by the same guy that turned me, and she works for him now." I simply nodded, and we both somehow mentally agreed never to talk of Katherine's sister again.