Empath ‣ Klaus Mikaelson [1]

Twenty-Two

Talia Sullivan, as an Empath, was able to sense and feel others' emotions. Whenever it became too much, she sometimes felt a period of numbness, almost like if she was a vampire and temporarily flipped off the humanity switch. That numb feeling surfaced for the first time in five years after she stood above the grave of Jenna Sommers. 

She felt like she couldn't attend the actual funeral ceremony, so she approached the grave the next day, alone and in a black dress.

She could have vomited. She could've screamed and cried. She could've placed the blame on someone. She would've if she wasn't just so tired of feeling.

Talia was infuriated at the thought that people didn't try hard enough to save Jenna. She was trapped and couldn't do much, but no one else seemed to step up. She's sure someone tried to save Jenna, but no one actually did anything to save her.

Talia wanted to feel angry, but she couldn't. Her fingernails dug into the palm of her hand, a small droplet of her blood seeping into the ground. She'd wince if she could feel the pain, but she couldn't. She was so drained. So tired.

She eventually had enough wallowing over a fresh grave, so she weaved through the graves to find the one that had her father's name carved in stone. The first emotion she felt after numbness was a rage for the fact that no one cared for her father's grave. It was overgrown and filthy, showing that no one tended to it after he was buried. She would have if she had stayed in Mystic Falls.

She knelt down and began pulling out the weeds to her father's grave, not caring that she was now covered in dirt. The weeds were tossed aside as she continued on cleaning it up. She cleaned off the stone with a corner of the black dress she wore, still too tired to care if she ruined it. It was her mother's anyway. She wouldn't care if her dress was shredded if she ever came back.

Before she knew it, tears began to fall from her eyes. She closed them, letting them flow freely until one hit her hand, feeling a little more viscous than normal tears. When she opened her eyes, she found the teardrop was red. Blood.

"Why's it gotta be blood?" she grumbled. "Town full of vampires. Just my luck."

She rubbed her face with a handkerchief, staining the cloth crimson as she did so. As she attempted to stand, using the grave for support, her knees buckled and she was subsequently thrown back to the ground violently. 

She pawed around for her phone in her purse before she realized she left it in Caroline's car that she borrowed, charging with the car cable. She swore violently before dragging herself through the cemetery to reach the car. She made it, finally, covered in blood, sweat, dirt, and tears. She opened the car and climbed in, grabbing her phone and calling the first person she knew she could trust with a problem.

Elijah.

He didn't answer, being stuck with Klaus and all, so she called Caroline instead. She would've called her surrogate mother, but then she'd have to explain the powers and... she already had a headache. 

"Hello?" Caroline answered, all chipper.

"Hey, Care," she said. "Long time, eh?"

"A bit, I guess," she murmured. "What's this all about?"

"I wish it were a social call, but I need your help. I'm at the cemetery and I'm crying blood."  

"Can you repeat that last part?"

"I'm crying blood, similar to the times I've thrown up blood."

"Um, okay. I wasn't sure if I heard you right. Now I'm just concerned."