Compulsion [J. Murphy]

P R O L O G U E

I stand in the International Space Station, watching the lines criss-cross around Earth. There's no time for anyone to get on a rocket or secret space ship, even the rich people.

Tears gather in my eyes. I only have a little bit of time to be able to contact my brothers before a nuclear missle hits the United States. I'm a vampire myself, and don't know what happens when exposed to radiation. I guess it's the same thing as walking outside without a daylight ring on.

I walk over to the radio-phone-thing, whatever it's actually referred to as, when it's my turn. I type in a few numbers and then a couple of rings are heard and then a voice I've been dying to hear.

"Hello?" Damon's voice is heard. It's full of static because of the long distance that I'm calling him from.

"Damon," I sob out. I cover my hand with my mouth knowing that they'll all be dead within the hour.

I can hear him yell for Stefan to come to the phone, "you're on speaker, Tori," he says.

"Stefan, Damon, I am so sorry," I try to control my sobbing. I shouldn't let their last moments be heard with me sobbing.

"We heard what's going on. Don't worry about us, we're gonna be okay. Where are you? Why do you sound like you're in a cave?" Stefan asks.

I wipe tears from my cheeks before saying, "I wanted to try something new, so I decided to be an astronaut. I'm stationed on the ISS, so I'm definitely gonna be okay. I'm sorry for not being there with you guys."

"No, no, no, no," Damon says, "we're gonna be okay, I swear. As long as you're alive, everything's gonna be alright."

"I love you guys," I say. Their voices are starting to static more, I know the line will cut out soon. "The line is about to go out."

"I love you too," they both say at the same time. "Stay safe," Damon adds afterwards.

I hear the line go dead and start to sob. Just like that, everyone I love is gone, out of my grasp. Why do I get to live and they die?

I go back over to the window, we're going over Europe now and I can see some explosions happening. I'd hate to be one of the people that don't die from the explosion, but from the sickness.

When we circle back around to America, I look towards the general area of Virginia. I've even managed to memorize what area Mystic Falls would be in. In its place, is a large fire, they wouldn't have been able to get away. The waterworks start once more as I start to sob uncontrollably.

Fire. Why couldn't it be water? Sure, a vampire will die over and over, but we can still swim. Fire destroys everything in its path, even every supernatural creatures. Not even Klaus Mikaelson will be able to withstand fire, I never understand why he thinks he's so invincible.

Whatever, none of that matters now. They're all dead. Every single person I have ever cared about in any way was wiped away in less than a couple of hours. There was no way to fight the threat this time.

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All of the space stations decided to get together. I'm glad that I'm a vampire now. I'll just live here until Earth is habitable again and then go back down there. I want to see if the family crypt is still standing, if it is, then I'll put in some coffins for Stefan and Damon. They deserve to be known.

We're marking this day in history down as Unity Day, the day the twelve stations got together to form the Ark. There was going to be a thirteenth, but they shot them down when they refused. Humanity is dead and they are still remorsely killing each other.

It's sad really.

I see a little space pod drop from the ship right before they shot it down. I hope she knows it's a suicide mission.

The infinity symbol on the side of her pod stands out to me for some reason. I put it into memory along with her name.

Becca Franco, good luck to you. Safe passage on your travels.

Wait, I just got a really good idea.

I turn and walk into the room where everyone is. "I think we should have a motto. It'll stick throughout history, and it'll be catchy," I suggest.

"And what do you have in mind?" Some guy with a French accent says from somewhere.

I grin, but it holds no real happiness. My happiness was just set on fire with tons of radiation.

"In peace may you leave the shore,
In love may you find the next,
Safe passage on your travels,
Until our final journey to the ground,
May we meet again."

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820 words

Sorry that this is short, the chapters will definitely be longer.

Thanks for reading!