Chapter Text
Elena hadn’t realized how quiet life had become until Caroline blasted music the moment she stepped into the house. Pop songs mixed with the smell of popcorn and strawberry lip gloss, and for the first time in a long time, Elena felt something close to…normal.
Or maybe just trying to be.
Bonnie was already on the couch with a blanket around her shoulders and a bowl of M&M’s in her lap. Caroline poured champagne into mismatched glasses for the three of them.
“Girls’ night,” Caroline declared with a theatrical flourish, handing Elena a glass. “Finally.”
Elena smiled, soft and real. “Finally.”
They spent the first half hour laughing over old photos Caroline had found on her phone of awkward Mystic Falls High dances, Tyler’s disastrous facial hair stage, and Damon photobombing literally everything.
Bonnie nudged Elena with her foot.
“You know…all things considered, are you doing okay?”
Elena shrugged and stared into her glass, watching bubbles rush upward like they were desperate to escape, she felt like she wanted to escape too. Not because of Caroline and Bonnie, but because everything lately had been too much. Losing Jeremy, being forced to turn off her humanity, then being forced to turn it back on by Damon and Stefan's torture. After they had killed Matt temporarily just to turn her humanity back on, she knew she wanted nothing to do with them.
Eventually, they could be friends, but right now she knew both of them would be expecting a choice. So her choice was to stay away from them.
“‘Okay’ feels like a strong word.”
“It’s fine,” Caroline said in a brighter tone that didn’t quite mask the concern. “We’re starting over, remember? No Salvatores, no supernatural trauma, just us. The Original Trauma Bond Survivors Club.”
Bonnie snorted.
“Pretty sure Elena’s still the president.”
“Hey!”
That made them laugh again. It felt good. Real laughter, not the sharp, brittle kind she’d been faking.
Eventually, the music settled into background noise. Bonnie braided Caroline’s hair while Elena painted her nails a deep wine red.
Caroline sighed dramatically.
“So…any cute guys lately?”
“No,” Bonnie answered immediately, as if cutting off a question meant to be personal. Her eyes flicked downward, she still thought of Jeremy. Elena sighed.
“Same,” Caroline added. “Either they’re boring or they’re secretly descendants of supernatural serial killers. There’s no in between.”
Elena hesitated.
“I…haven’t really thought about dating.”
Bonnie and Caroline exchanged a look, concern mixed with protectiveness. Elena felt it, warm and unwanted all at once.
“It’s okay not to be with someone,” Bonnie said gently. “Really.”
“I know.” Elena looked down at her hands. “I just thought I’d feel more…something.”
Happy. Hopeful. Free.
She didn’t say any of those words out loud.
Caroline, trying desperately to lighten the mood, blurted:
“Maybe someone normal, at least! Like Matt!”
Elena laughed.
A different face flickered in her mind. Sharp cheekbones. Dark, steady eyes. A suit. Calmness that felt like safety and danger all at once.
Elijah Mikaelson.
The thought startled her so much she actually blinked.
Where did that come from?
He wasn’t in town. Probably in some far-away mansion, negotiating treaties or being noble in a way only he could be. The last time she had seen him was Willoughby.
She tried not to think about it.
Bonnie leaned forward, eyes bright.
“Actually, you know what? I could do a soulmate spell.”
Elena laughed.
Caroline gasped. “Oh my god. Do it. Please. I want to know who my soulmate is. I hope he’s hot. No, rich. No, both.”
Bonnie rolled her eyes but the idea was already taking form.
“You guys are ridiculous.”
But Elena didn’t laugh this time, some quiet, buried part of her wanted answers too.
“Maybe,” Elena whispered, “I wouldn’t mind knowing.”
The room stilled.
Bonnie arranged candles in a circle, smudged sage across the air, muttered incantations she half-remembered from her ancestors’ notes. Wind began to stir, even though every window was closed.
Caroline filmed it on her phone.
“This is either going to be iconic or tragic.”
Elena stood in the center of the circle, heart thudding. The candles flickered, their flames stretching impossibly tall.
A pull ran through her body like gravity shifting, tightening around her ribs, her lungs, her heart.
Bonnie’s voice trembled.
“Wait, I think, Elena, something’s-”
But before she could finish a force snapped through the room.
The circle of candles flared white.
Elena’s breath left her all at once.
She felt the floor vanish beneath her as she saw the living room dissolve into blinding light, and heard someone scream her name through the noise.
“ELENA!”