The Gilbert Twins

Chapter Thirty Seven: Holly

Holly knew that she couldn't hide forever.

But honestly she didn't know what to do, where to go, how to act, how to feel. Ever since she had ditched home in the middle of the night she had been asking herself the same questions. Why did Damon kill Isobel? How did Isobel and Damon even know each other? Should she even go back to Mystic Falls?

Not that everything had changed in the slightest in Mystic Falls and now her life seemed to be a nonstop soap opera of the supernatural kind. She had been staying in a small village called Milesia fifty miles west of Mystic Falls, where the closest thing to entertainment was an old movie theater that played fifties movies.

Holly had been staying here for over a week and she was not making any attempt on leaving anytime soon. Jenna hadn't been happy that she had left, but she was more understandable and didn't ask too many questions. She had given Holly one more weeks of "playtime" otherwise she would drag her by her hair.

Stefan had also called to apologize for Damon's reckless behavior and honestly Holly hadn't heard half of the things he had said. Elena updated her with Mystic Falls news and honestly just hearing what was happening made her not want to return at all. In just a short week so much had happened:

The tomb vampires had gone out and were run by Anna and her mother Pearl, Alaric had a magic ring that brought him back to life that had been a gift from Isobel, Stefan had been tortured by the tomb vampires, and Bonnie was still not back yet.

All of this news made Holly not even want to think about Mystic Falls, but she knew she had to come back eventually. She needed to finish school and she wouldn't give Damon the satisfaction of destroying the one attempt on finding her mother.

Holly looked at the clock in her small hotel room. It was only four, she could do some sightseeing instead of staying here and having a pity party for the seventh day in a row. She grabbed her purse and headed outside where the cold wind hit her.

Holly looked around the shops for a bit, but there were mostly tourist's traps. She paused in front of a small store that said Psychic, palm reading, tarot card reading. She had never believed in psychics, but hey she hadn't believe in witches and vampires and they were real, might as well give them a shot.

There was the small ding of a bell as Holly entered the small, dusty shop that was covered with the weirdest things that Holly had ever seen. "Hello?"

"Hello," a small woman wearing a purple turban glided towards her. "I'm Pam Andrews, may you have good fortunes."

"Um, you too." Holly said awkwardly. "I'm Holly. How much for a palm reading?"

"Twenty five dollars."

Holly handed her the money and Pam headed towards the small, blue cloth covered table. "Sit down and hand me your palm."

Holly did as she was told and Pam traced her fingers over Holly's hand. "You will have a long life Holly, almost eternal," she winked. "You will be blessed with a long, full life with many loved ones. You will have back luck at first, but it will slowly turn good."

"That's comforting." Holly said dryly. "Will I get married? Have children?"

"Marriage, no. Children . . . it's unclear." She said. "But you will travel a lot. Do you want to hear about your love life?" she didn't wait for Holly to answer. "You will have a fruitful love life, you don't love easily, and it takes you time to trust, to love. You will have two great loves, but only one will be your true love."

Holly knew it was a very bad habit to smoke and she had been trying to quit honestly, she hadn't smoke a cigarette since she had meet Damon which coincidently was when she had left town too, but right now she was feeling particularly stressed and smoking seemed to be the only way to relieved it. It was just one lousy cigarette.

"Katerina."

She turned around when she heard a British voice, she saw a man with short, light brown hair and blue eyes. "No, not Katerina, you must have mistaken me."

The man scowled, but then he noticed that Holly wasn't wearing any jewelry, his look grew more confused which was making Holly uncomfortable. "Sorry."

"Wait," he interrupted. "What's your name?"

"Holly." Holly said. "Holly Gilbert and your name oh mysterious stranger."

"Nik." Klaus smiled.

"Short for Nikolas?"

"Something like that."

He noticed the cigarette and Holly threw it away. "Sorry, bad habit when I'm stressed."

"We all have our secrets. Frankly, you deal with your stress in a healthy way with all the murderer and psychopaths running around." Holly laughed. "I'm sorry, you reminded me of someone."

Holly shook her head. "It's no problem."

Klaus kissed her hand. "We'll meet again soon, Holly."

"I doubt it." Holly said. "But that was very charming."

Klaus shrugged. "I have my gifts." He took once last glanced at her and walked away.

Holly's cell phone rang and she picked it up. It was her twin. "Elena. Is everything ok? How's Stefan?"

"Stefan is fine." Elena said in a non-convincing tone. "He's struggling with his blood lust, but he's fine. Holly, when are you coming home? I miss you, Jeremy misses you-"

Holly ignored the rest of the conversation as she watch Klaus leave. For some reason she couldn't get his face, his mannerism out of her mind.

"Holly?" Elena's voice rang out. "Are you still there?"

Holly didn't take her eyes of the British man as he left, her eyes drifted away for a moment and when she looked back, he was gone. "I'm coming home