𝓖𝓲𝓵𝓫𝓮𝓻𝓽 𝓦𝓲𝓽𝓬𝓱

Drowning Sorrows

It had been a few days since the prank night fiasco and Victoria was slouched in a booth at the grill, sunglasses on, nursing an awful hangover from the night prior. Jeremy had introduced Tori to everyone (much to Elena's dismay) and she had come to realise that Alaric and Damon were her favourite people from the 'Scooby Gang.'

Tori had spent most of her time wallowing and mourning the people she lost. She also bought a reasonably sized house – the Gilbert residence had become too much for her recently and she really needed a break. The house towered over all the others demanding submission. The dark brick gave it a Gothic appeal and the slim four storey structure certainly stood out from the bland beige boxes lining the street. She was now in the process of moving in. It wasn't Grimmauld Place, but it was her new home.

When she wasn't busy moving her stuff, she was spending time with Matt, Tyler and Jeremy, ignoring the constant drama Elena provided. It seemed that ever since Victoria had returned Elena had made it her mission to get everyone to hate her again, but it had been a while since she had last done this, and she was out of practice. Simply put, Tori had changed. No longer was she the little girl getting picked on by her bitch of a 'twin.' Her new drinking and smoking habits had certainly not been lost on those around her. Alaric's attempts in getting her to stop proved futile but he really couldn't talk, he pretty much drank his body weight in alcohol every day.

She was older now; those emerald eyes of hers had seen more grief, pain and death than Elena and her little gang could ever imagine. Not to mention only four people in Mystic Falls knew about her kind of magic and three of them were dead now. Jeremy was still her best friend, he was the only one she could show her magic to and it sucked but at least he was alive. She still wished she could tell Matt and Tyler - at least if they somehow did find out by accident she had enough influence at the ministry to convince them against obliviating her friends.

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Victoria sat at the grill thinking about what led her to drink her weight in tequila last night. Jeremy had been updating her on the famous Mystic Falls supernatural drama. It turns out they tried to capture Stefan at the bonfire and force him to turn his humanity back on, short story, their plan failed. But that was not what drove her to drown her sorrows in liquor, she swore she saw Sirius and figured she was really going insane now. He was dead after all, her godfather was definitely dead. But she refused to cry about it, she wasn't weak. So instead she followed her recurring routine of getting drunk off her mind to forget about it because the alternative was to remember, and she'd done that and she never wanted to do it again.

So here she was slumped in a booth with a large cup of black coffee in hand. She couldn't have seen him it just wasn't possible it was just survivors' guilt, yeah that's what it was. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone sitting in the chair across from her. She looked up, it was Rebekah.

"You look dreadful." She said not looking the least bit sympathetic.

"I sure feel it," Tori replied, moodily.

"So I'm bored and you're the only decent person in this stupid town so we're going shopping." She ordered in a sharp tone but the witch could tell that there was a lot of insecurity behind her nonchalant mask.

"Okay then, besides Jer, Matty, Ty and Alaric I don't talk to anyone. I could use a new friend; us girls have got to stick together." She replied.

Rebekah tried to hide a smile but failed, "Yeah you're right." The vampire said before dragging her off by the arm.

"But I swear if you bring anything remotely pink or frilly near me I will crazy murder you, I don't care that you're immortal I will find a way." She said in a stern voice, before laughing slightly.

"Got it no pink no frills, don't worry this is going to be amazing now come on." She told her before rushing out of the grill, the petite sorceress trailing after her.

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It had been a good day just as Rebekah promised, she had talked – more like ranted – about her family. Turns out she has four brothers; she used to have another, Henrik the youngest but he died little over a thousand years ago. She learnt that Finn despises what he is and thinks of his family as abominations. Niklaus is her power hungry hybrid half-brother who is really just afraid of being alone. Elijah is the noble one who kills anyone endangering his family. And lastly Kol is a spoilt middle child who often goes on killing sprees when he doesn't get his way. Overall she had a bit of a crazy family but Victoria didn't mind and she couldn't exactly judge, hers was pretty crazy too. 

After Rebekah spoke about her family Tori told her about hers, all the while trying her hardest to leave out the parts about Hogwarts, giant snakes, trolls, dragons; you know just the questionable and crazy stuff that might make her think she had escaped from an insane asylum. Tori told her how Elena tormented her every chance she got, how her real parents were murdered when she was a baby, how she was left with her distant family and how the only thing really keeping her here now was Jeremy and maybe Matt and Tyler.

Hands full of shopping bags and feet exhausted, the two supernaturals collapsed back into her new house. It had been a perfect day, for once Victoria was at ease but she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling in the back of her mind. Something was different in Mystic Falls she just knew it.

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Thank you all for reading my story! It's amazing to have such a massive response. Sorry, this chapter was quite short, I'm trying to space out events and not write such huge chapters. 

Love you all!

Lucy

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