Gilbert Twins [1 - Twins Series]

17 - A Bird in a Gilded Cage

Book: Gilbert Twins
Chapter 17: A Bird in a Gilded Cage
Word Count: 3486

Damon was sitting in the living room of the Salvatore House, looking tense and annoyed, when Ariana swung open the door and strutted inside. Damon turned to her.

"How was the rave?"

"Oh, you know, loud, lame, rave-like." Ariana shrugged, not even bothering to glance at him as she immediately headed over to the drinks table.

"Anything I should know, or anything you'd like to talk about, baby-to-babe?" Damon asked, slightly passive-aggressively.

"Where do you keep the weapons?" Ariana wondered, causing Damon to furrow his eyebrows in confusion.

"Pardon?"

"Crossbows, vervain grenades, all that hunter crap my baby bro was into?" Ariana shrugged, taking a sip of her bourbon. "Ah! Yes! The throne." She walked over to a chair and opened a hidden compartment full of weapons underneath the seat. She packed some weapons into a bag, when suddenly, Damon vamp sped over to his girlfriend and tried to inject her with vervain, but Ariana caught his hand before he could do it. "Elena told on me. Shocker."

"Not a good time for a humanity flip, baby." Damon rolled his eyes, looking even more annoyed. Ariana simply flashed him a smirk before breaking his hand and dropping the vervain syringe.

"Do yourself a favor. Stay out of my way today... babe." And then, Ariana walked out confidently, swaying her hips as her six inch heels tapped against the floor loudly.

---

Caroline was auditioning in front of the director, who was taking notes.

Caroline
Maybe there's somewhere, a lesson to learn.
But that wouldn't change the fact...
That wouldn't speed the time.
Once the foundation's cracked...
And I'm still hurting.

She wiped a fake tear off her cheek and turned off the music.

"Hello? Pretty sure I crushed that."

Suddenly, the director's head fell off, revealing that Stefan was sitting behind him. He slow clapped as Caroline shielded her eyes from the light to see who it was.

"Moving. Truly. Although it did lack a certain, um, authenticity."

"What the hell are you doing? That was the director!"

"So?" Ariana suddenly appeared beside Caroline on the stage. "You are a vampire without humanity, singing about heartbreak."

"It's a performance, love." Caroline rolled her eyes. Ariana smirked and took a step towards the blonde.

"'Love'?"

"It's a nickname. Get over it." Caroline snapped. And then, Stefan stood up and joined the two girls on the stage.

"This sure is a performance, Caroline. Especially this carefully crafted good student routine, straight and narrow, anything to keep you from making a mistake you might regret one year from now when you flip your switch back on. Oh, except the whole ruining-my-life part."

"Well, if your humanity's off, then you shouldn't really care how I deal." Caroline pointed out.

"No, no, no." Stefan gently shook his head. "See, that's where you're wrong. Because, like you, and like Ariana, I'm prone to doing bad things when my humanity is off, but unlike you, Ariana and I don't have an elaborate system to keep us in check."

"Well, that's not my problem!" Caroline glared at Stefan.

"Well, I'm making it your problem. If my life is gonna fall apart when my humanity starts flooding back, then so is yours. When I'm done with you, you'll be drowning in mistakes." Stefan then glanced at Ariana. "And don't think I've forgotten about you. You're both going to go through hell and back. Believe me."