Jenny-Elijah Mikaelson

05

A heartbeat.

What defined the difference between a soul and a body was a heartbeat. Despite being a ghostly soul moments ago, she now had one.

        The bright light that surrounded them had disappeared and they were standing in a cemetery. Her hand was still latched to her blue-eyed friend.

           As she looked at their joined hands, she realized her skin wasn't a ghostly white anymore but rather full of color. Her clothes even regained their normal shade. She wasn't like some character in a black-and-white movie anymore.

               Her other hand clutched at her chest to feel the thump of a heart underneath and she knew it was all real now and not some dream.

                "I'm alive. We're alive," Jenny smiled with tears in her eyes as she looked at Damon and Bonnie.

                The emotions she felt consumed her so much that she didn't notice she couldn't feel the touch of the hand she held.

               ____

            The first thing Jenny did was reunite with Elena and Jeremy. The look of shock on their faces was priceless; she would've laughed if she wasn't so emotional.

               "Oh my god," Elena said with wide eyes. Jeremy had the same look. "Aunt Jenny."

            Jenny was encased in a group hug and she thought she would've cried but she didn't. Instead, she noticed the longer she spent alive, the more numb she became. It was like all her feelings got stuffed in a bottle.

              She became even more alarmed by the fact that when she was hugged, she was aware of a dull sensation around her, but she just couldn't feel the hug. Touch alluded her senses.

             So to say she was frightened was an understatement. By the time she got home where dust coated everything, she was wary. She was also tired, deeply; she guessed not sleeping in two years could do that to someone.

             But there was one thing she was even more terrified of: the dark.

              When she lied down to bed, she kept the lamp on her nightstand turned on. But even then, every time she closed her eyes she thought she was back in the darkness, alone and wandering and lost.

               It was a very long night because this time, she was haunted by herself.

               _____

               Time passed.

              Bonnie fixed what the Travelers did and the supernatural could once again enter Mystic Falls. Damon was...Damon. And, herself, well, she smiled like everyone expected her to but she supposed it felt a bit broken; like somehow her happiness didn't belong to her.

               But today she was going to smile anyways. It was a very big day in Mystic Falls. Elena and Stefan were getting married.

              They had gotten engaged while they were in the prison world but now the day was officially here. The couple was also now human thanks to the cure that Damon and Jenny got back in the prison world.

               "You look so beautiful, Elena," Jenny cupped her hands around her mouth as she looked at the doppelgänger in her wedding gown. "Jenna would've said the same."

              Elena teared up a bit at that before looking in the mirror at her, "I'm so glad you're here, Jenny."

               Elena turned to her, "Thank you...for everything."